


Maxed Out

by NCMB



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: Age Difference, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe, Angst, Blood and Violence, Domestic Discipline, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Out of Character, Past Child Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Slow Burn, Suicide Attempt, Trans Male Character, Unhealthy Relationships, Wealth, Weight Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:22:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 91,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23037010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NCMB/pseuds/NCMB
Summary: Red Reznikov has led a very successful life behind bars. She knows how to do her time, and only has a few years left. Life seems fine until she is assigned her first bunkie in many years... and she isn't so sure about him.Max Rogers arrived at FCI Litchfield one week after his 18th birthday. A transgender man from Mississippi sent down for a long bid, Max is intrigued by the angry Russian woman he's assigned to bunk with.
Relationships: Galina "Red" Reznikov/ Original Male Character, Lorna Morello/Nicky Nichols, Nicky Nichols & Galina "Red" Reznikov
Comments: 58
Kudos: 56





	1. New Bunkies

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story after I joked with my wife that I, as a trans man, would go to lady jail if I got arrested. This is my first time posting on AO3 after 15 years on FFN, so if I do something wrong, please let me know.

Sam Healy MSW, of the Federal Correctional Institution, Litchfield, looked across his desk at the person who sat in front of him. The kid was rail-thin, with light dirty blond hair and a cocky smirk. Other than that, Healy didn’t know what to think of the kid.

A case manager in a sharp dress suit stood near the closed door. Healy nodded for the woman to speak, and she said, “Think Bursett, but the other way. Max is on testosterone, which has to be continued under law, but has not been able to afford gender reassignment surgery, but has had a breast reduction and chest masculinization surgery.”

“So-” Healy looked from his paperwork to Max Rogers, the most confusing inmate he had come across in over 20 years at the DOC. “So Max is a woman who wants to be a man and we have to call her a him and room him with females?”

The case manager took a deep breath and seemed prepared to let out a stream, but Max spoke up. He had a thick Southern accent, which surprised Healy. “Don’t worry, Carla. He’s a ways ahead of most people. Mr. Healy, I got twenty-five to life here. I’m just a man trying to get out on time. I don’t need anythin extra besides my prescription.”

“And male underwear,” Case Manager Carla said. “But bras and female hygiene products are not needed.”

Healy put his glasses on his desk and said, “Well, okay then.”

~X~

Max followed the large officer to his bunk after his meeting with the counselor. Women all around him gave him dirty looks. The officer pointed into the second to last bunk on the right side. A stern looking woman with spiky red hair stood from the left bunk and said, “What is this?” She had a brusk Russian accent and a hostile expression. 

“Red,” Officer O’Neil said, “this is Rogers. Rogers will be your bunkmate.”

“I don’t have bunkmates.”

The CO seemed unimpressed as he propelled Max into the cube. “Make Rogers feel welcome.”

When O’Neil left, the woman named Red looked Max over. “What the _hell_ are you?”

“My name is Max Rogers,” replied Max. “How are you?”

“Angry.” 

Max sat on the free bunk and dropped his bag on the ground. He said, “That’s sad. All things considered, I’m pretty happy. Why do they call you Red?”

Red blinked at him. “I have no idea.”

Max nodded. “So, we’re bunkmates. You don’t seem very happy about that.”

“I thought I was in a women’s prison.”

“Me too,” Max said. 

“Aren’t you a man?”

“I am. But my vagina says I gotta be in a women's prison.”

Red blinked again. “We should not talk about it, it might be easier for me.” Red walked out of the bunk and a small group of women surrounded her as soon as she crossed the threshold. Whispers echoed as the group left. 

Max set up his bunk area and then laid down with his ankles crossed and his arms over his chest. He stared at the ceiling and lost himself in his thoughts. His previous few weeks had been a whirlwind of constant activity, and he felt strange just laying in one place undisturbed. 

~X~

Red walked directly to Healy’s office after she left her cube. Her family was interested to know about the new person, and they asked her questions until she closed Healy’s office door behind her.

She sat and stared at the man.

“I’m not reassigning him, Red,” Healy said without looking away from his computer.

“Healy, this is ridiculous. There are bunks available. He does not have to be with me.”

The counselor sighed and looked at her. “Have you _seen_ him, Red? I can’t put a person like that in with someone else. He’ll attract the wrong sort of attention. You’re the least likely to fall prey to any sort of nonsense.” Healy spread his hands as if he had made his point obvious.

Red leaned back in her chair and said, “So you’ve stuck me with him because he’s… handsome?”

“Exactly. You know these women, they go wild for the butch ones. So I need you to keep him out of any sort of trouble. He’s the youngest inmate here and he’s going to be here awhile. I need you to make sure he doesn’t cause me any problems.”

“I’ll want something for this.”

“Of course you will.”

Red started the journey back to her bunk. Even Healy had referred to the inmate as male. She wondered what that was about. Burset had been a man once; Red wondered if Max was in a similar situation.

~X~

Max almost started to doze when the angry Red woman returned sometime later and looked directly down at him.

“Tell me about yourself.”

“Pardon me?” Max didn’t know what to do, and he felt very exposed with his midsection open to her. He pulled his limbs in without realizing he did so.

“Tell me everything about yourself. I need to know if you are a suitable bunkmate.” 

Max felt like 10 pounds of confusion in a 5-pound bag. “I dunno. I’m 18, I been in and out of jail for 6 years, mostly anti-social crimes-”

“Drugs?” Red demanded. He glanced at her face and saw a stern expression.

“I’ve never done drugs,” answered Max. “Numbs the hate too much.”

Her face rearranged into a small smirk. “Good. Because I have no tolerance for drugs. Here are the rules, boy. You won’t do drugs. You won’t get any shit except through me. You do what I say when I say it. You don’t do anything stupid. You see someone do something stupid, you tell me first. You don’t bring anything stupid into this bunk. I don’t tolerate people jeopardizing my semi-comfortable existence here. I’ve been here for a long time. I’ll be here after you leave, so you will not ruin the good thing I have going. They’ve made you my responsibility, so you answer to me. Do you understand?”

Max nodded. She reached down and grabbed his hair while she leaned down closer to him. “I like verbal responses. Keep that in mind.” She released his hair and turned to her own bunk. 

“Yes, ma’am.”

Red smiled as she sat at her locker. She hoped she would have no problems with him. He seemed just moldable enough and naive enough to be useful without being dangerous. 

“Where are you from?”

“Rogersville County, Mississippi.”

Red looked at him again. “Coincidence with the name?”

“Nah, my family founded the town two hundred years ago or something. They own and run everything.” Before she said anything, Max said, “I’m not allowed in the yard. Do you mind if I work out here?”

Red slid her chair to next to Max’s bunk. “Why are you not allowed in the yard?”

Max shrugged again, so Red pinched his shoulder. “Ow!”

“Speak with your voice, boy.”

“Sorry, ma’am.” He rubbed his shoulder and looked at her. “They won’t let me in the yard because of my escape conviction, I guess. Which is total- bologna because the entire _attempt_ was me locked in a closet and singing _We’re Not Gunna Take It_. Do you mind if I work out in here, ma’am?”

“No, but be neat about it.”

“Yes ma’am. Thank you.”

“And I expect you to keep this bunk clean, top to bottom. I work 16 hours a day every day but Tuesday. So you will do most of the cleaning. Did you clean bunks in county?”

Max was silent for a second, and when she glanced at him, his face was distant. “No. I’ll clean the bunk, of course, ma’am.”

“Good.” She sat on her bunk and she said, “I think we’ll get along fine, Rogers, if you keep minding yourself.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Red looked his bunk over and then stood. “Get up, boy.” Max popped out of the bed and shifted to the side as she approached. “I’m going to show you how to make your bunk. I’ll show you once.”

Max watched as she pulled the bedding out of his laundry bag and started making the bed. It was a very specific method, and Max tried to remember what she did. 

When she finished the bed, Red straightened up and looked at him. “Where are your things?”

“Things?”

She rolled her eyes. “Your toothbrush, your toilet paper?”

“Oh, I ain’t got those,” he said.

“What have you been using since you got here?”

“I just got here this morning, ma’am.”

She stared at him for a moment. “They assigned you directly to a bunk?” They kept new people in the rooms for a period of time as a form of quarantine. But that did explain why she hadn't seen him in the cafeteria.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“How did you get here?”

“The marshals drove me from my trial.”

Nothing about the boy’s story made sense to Red. She had been in prison for quite a while, and his arrival was out of the ordinary. She did not like out of the ordinary, because it always meant trouble for her.

Before Red could get to the bottom of that, 4pm count rolled around. Red explained to Max that he had to be at the entry to the cube for each count, and remain silent.

As they stood outside of the cube, a woman with bushy blonde hair sprinted by them and stopped at the last cube on the right, out of breath, and generally disheveled. She was older than Max, but he could not determine her exact age. She had heavy mascara and a small smirk.

Red barely looked at her, but said, “Nicky,” in a warning tone.

The woman shrugged and walked over to their cube after the count. She looked at Max in confusion. “Who’s GI Joemygod over here?”

“Nicky, this is Max Rogers. Rogers, this is Nicky, my daughter. Now, I’d like to get to dinner.”

Red walked out of the cube and left Nicky and Max to walk behind her. “I gotta ask,” Nicky said, “what’s going on in your pants?”

Max looked at her and said, “I’m a trans man. So I’m on testosterone, but my nether regions are pretty much the same. That’s why I’m here; if I’d been able to get bottom surgery before, you know, the crime, then I would have gone to a men’s prison.”

“So you’re like a dude with a pussy,” clarified Nicky. 

“If you want to be gross, then yes,” Max conceded.

They made it to the cafeteria, where dozens of women stared at Max. “Ignore them,” Nicky advised. “Here, get in line.” 

Max followed her but said, “I’m not actually hungry.”

Nicky gave him a look he could not interpret. “Here’s a heads up. Your bunkie, Red, she runs the kitchen. You look like a skeleton had a baby with a twig. She’s going to want to feed you until you explode. Just take it, it’s how she shows she cares.”

“Well, that would be my luck. I hate eating and the scary woman likes feeding people. I’ve entered Hell.”

The blonde woman laughed and shoved a tray in his hands when they reached the service line. “How much do you weigh?”

“That’s a _very_ personal question.”

Nicky laughed raucously. “I asked you about your genitals within five minutes of meeting you, but your _weight_ is off-limits? Come on, how much?”

“115 pounds.”

“And you’re what, six-foot?” Nicky waved off a small woman across the counter, “No lettuce, Gina, it’s brown. That’s gross.”

“Six-one,” Max answered. 

“So, what is it? Anorexia? Bulimia?” They walked from the service line to a table with other people.

“I don’t know what those are,” Max said as he sat and looked at the food on the tray.

Nicky turned to the other women at the table, “Family, this is Max Rogers. Rogers, this is the family.”

“Oh, good. I’m in hell _and_ there’s a cult.”

Nicky choked on her juice. 

“I’ll be more specific. This is Yoga Jones, Sister, DeMarco, Big Boo, Mercy, and Morello.” 

They greeted him, and he could see the curiosity in their eyes. Boo looked him over with a small frown, and Morello watched his hands.

Before anyone asked any questions, Red walked over with a coffee mug and sat between Max and Boo. She looked from Max’s tray to Nicky’s face with a stern look. Nicky shrugged helplessly. 

“You don’t like the food?” Red asked. The table was silent as they watched. 

“I’m going to be honest, ma’am, the last thing I ate was sometime before my trial, and that was four days ago, and it was a rat that crawled under the closet door, so I really don’t have much of an appetite.” The family stared at him. He continued, unperturbed by their stares, “But, uncle Joe was cool enough to give me some of the whiskey from the family’s celebration of my sentencing, so I guess that was the last thing I ate?”

Without a word, Red stood up and took his tray before she walked back to the kitchen. 

Nicky sat silent for only another moment. “I have so many questions about your life.”

That opened the question floodgates. Max tried to keep up and answer as many as he could, but the women talked over each other. 

Red returned and set a coffee mug in front of Max before she sat down again. “Drink that,” she said. “It’s ginger tea. You’re too skinny. We’ll fix that.”

Max glanced at Nicky, who held her hands up in front of her. “I just do what Red says, I suggest you do the same.”

Red struck up a conversation with Yoga Jones. Max looked at the tea and smelled it, which amused Nicky. He drank it as quickly as he could and set the mug down. Without looking away from her conversation, Red took the mug and held it as she asked Sister Ingalls about her sleep.

Nicky stood up and said, “I’m going to show Max around.” She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him with her from the cafeteria. Once they were in the rec room, Nicky said, “You might have noticed that Red is in charge around here. She runs the whites.” She explained the tribal nature of the prison and gave him info on the main players of the prison.

“So- everyone is racist?” Max asked.

“Where are you from?” 

“Mississippi.”

“Then you should feel right at home.”

“Don’t get me wrong, my family turned racism into an Olympic sport,” Max said, “but I was never down with that.” He looked off toward the opaque window and said, “One of the reasons they hated me.”

They sat at a table and Nicky put her feet on a third chair. She started explaining about various Guards and how they operated. She slipped in questions as well, which he answered openly.

The tour eventually continued to include the laundry, TV room, showers, chapel, and medical. She led him back to his cube and she sat on Red’s bunk as Max sat on his own. She pulled Red’s crochet blanket to her chest and squeezed.

“So, how long you got?” Nicky asked.

“25,” he said.

“Months?”

“Years.”

“F _uck_.”

They continued talking about life in prison. 

Red walked into the cube and gave Nicky a warning look. “I know, ma. I’ll leave your bunk like I found it.”

The older woman nodded and went to her locker. She looked for something, and then tossed a bag to Max. It smacked him in the face because he had been looking at Nicky. “Nicky, take him to Sophia, have her fix his head. Pay with the worms, don’t eat them.”

Nicky nodded and dragged Max with her to the salon. “Sophia, you got time for one more head?”

“I might,” a very tall black woman said.

Max stopped dead and stared at her. She gave him a challenging look, until he said, “Holy shit how are you this pretty in prison?”

Sophia laughed and had him sit down. Nicky took the bag of gummy worms out of his hands and handed them to Sophia. “Red wants his head fixed.”

The stylist clicked her tongue and said, “I don’t blame her, this is a mess.” She ran her hands through Max’s hair and tilted his head from side to side. “What’s going on here, little one? It looks like someone attacked you with a straight razor.”

“I mean, that's not wrong. After they shot me down, they took me for surgery and the doc cut up my hair all weird. It grew in funny after that.”

Nicky mouthed _shot me down_ with raised eyebrows.

Sophia went about figuring out what to do with his hair as Nicky sat on the counter and played with a comb. 

“Where are you from, little guy?” Sophia asked.

“Mississippi,” he responded.

She made a ticking sound and continued, “That can’t have been easy, sweetie.”

“Nah, but life ain’t easy, is it, ma’am?” 

After half an hour, Sophia bade them good night and Nicky walked Max back to his cube. “You look good, kid. What a difference.”

Red stood when they walked into the cube. She grabbed Max’s chin and turned his head to look at his hair cut. “That’s better,” she declared. “Thanks, Nicky.”

“I have a meeting in the chapel now,” Nicky said as she excused herself. 

Max sat on his bunk and ran a hand over his hair, which was considerably shorter, but an even length and soft.

Red sat on her bunk and swung her feet up to rest her back on her three pillows. “Do you know what your job assignment is?”

“No, ma’am.”

She hummed and opened a book. “I will be awake at 4 in the morning. Do not disturb my sleep.”

When Red woke the next morning, she was intrigued to find Max awake and sitting on his bunk, faced to the entry, with his legs crossed and eyes closed. She got off her bunk and shook his shoulder.

His eyes snapped open and he looked at her with an eyebrow raised. 

She spoke quietly so she did not disturb other women. “Did you sleep, boy?”

He shook his head and looked back down to the entry. She patted his shoulder. Though it had been many years, she remembered her first night in prison more clearly than she would like. Nothing prepared a person for the monumental cultural shift.

Red prepared for the day and went to the kitchen. Her thoughts strayed back to the strange boy in her cube throughout the morning. When she did not see him at breakfast, she sent a sharp look to Nicky, who raised her hands to the side as if to say she had no idea where he was.

The kid had been there for one day, and already she was annoyed with him. Red continued running the breakfast shift as she thought about Max. He had not eaten or slept since he had arrived at Litchfield, and Red would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried. Something told her it went beyond just a tough transition.

When Max did not appear for lunch, Red left the kitchen in Norma’s hands and returned to her cube. She found Max in a tank top doing push-ups. She waited for him to notice her. He straightened his arms, locked his elbows, and looked up at her.

She crossed her arms and looked down at him with a tilted head, and asked, “Still not hungry?”

She enjoyed his look of stress. He started to stand up, but she said, “Do not move.” Max froze in his upright plank position. Red sat on her bunk and leaned forward until her face was only a few inches from his ear. “Let me make myself perfectly clear, little boy.” She reached forward and ran a hand over his hair. She could tell that he was straining to keep himself upright. “I’m annoyed, and I don’t like being annoyed. Do you know why I’m annoyed?”

“No, ma’am?”

She lowered her voice even more, until she whispered in his ear, “I am annoyed because you are not taking care of yourself, which means I have to take care of you. Do I seem like I have ample free time to chase you around and make sure you eat?”

“No ma’am.”

She continued running her hand through his hair. She could tell it would be very soft usually, but he was sweating pretty heavily and his hair was damp. “That’s correct. I expect you to sleep and eat. I don’t care how you feel about it. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

“Yes ma’am.”

She cupped his left cheek and pulled his head to face her. Max’s eyes were wide. “Good. If I have to have this conversation again, it will be _much_ less pleasant for you.” She yanked his right elbow, which dropped him to the ground. She leaned forward and twisted his arm behind his back. She observed how bony his arm was, and she could see the ridges of his spine. “Be good and come to dinner and eat your entire tray, or I will snap this little arm.”

Red stood and walked out of the cube. She brushed off her smock and headed back to the kitchen.

Nicky walked into Red’s cube and helped him off the floor. “You okay, kid? Shit was serious.”

Max nodded and let out a shaky breath. “I’m starting to miss my closet.” 

Nicky let that slide by without comment. “Yeah, Red can be pretty intense. She’s been here like 10 years, she’s climbed her way to the top and kept herself there.”

She watched the boy rub his forehead, which had smacked the ground hard. “I just- I just don’t eat a lot. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to piss her off, but I don’t want to get sick.”

Nicky flopped onto Red’s bunk. “Red’s no joke, kid. I’d think about how rough life will be if you do piss her off. She has a lot of power here.”

Max sat on his locker.

“I’m fucked.”

Red stood beside the service line with her arms crossed. Several tables commented on how pissed she looked. Taystee Jefferson said to Poussey Washington, “Now I know Red got some resting bitch face, but _that_ is something extra.”

She stood there until Max walked in with Nicky and got in line. Red turned on her heel and entered her office. Gina brought her a canned goods inventory and left without a word. She wasn’t dumb, she could tell when Red was in a mood to rip someone’s head off and shit down their neck.

Red looked up when Nicky knocked on the door. “Yes, Nicky?”

“Can we talk?” 

The older woman debated telling Nicky to leave, she had work to do, but something in the girl’s eyes made her reconsider. With a disgruntled _hmph_ , she wheeled her chair over to open the door. Nicky sat on the desk and fidgeted.

“What’s up, Nicky?”

“Do you think you could cool it on bullying Max?” 

Red leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Excuse me?”

“It’s just- I don’t think he’s had an easy life. He makes little comments that are fucking _horrifying_ , and he’s such a sweet kid. Ma, please. He’s not insulting your food, I swear. I think he needs a little, I dunno, nurturing.”

Red considered Nicky’s words. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’ve spent a lot of time with him and he’s only talked about shit that makes me think Marka might not have been _so_ bad, you know? I think he’ll respond to you better if you show him some kindness. You know- more motherly, less bone breaker. A week ago he was a seventeen-year-old kid sentenced to _life_ in prison.”

Red considered the words for several moments. Max was a very young man, five years younger than her youngest son. And something was clearly wrong with him.

“Okay,” Red said. She uncrossed her arms and gestured her capitulation. “I will try that.”

Nicky smiled at her with a toothy grin. “Thanks, ma.”

Red shooed her daughter from the office and she stood at the door to look at the tables.

She saw Max with the rest of her family. He was so thin that Red worried he would collapse at the table. There was a bruise blossoming right at his hairline, and she thought back to what Nicky had said. 

That evening, Red entered her cube to find Max on his bunk staring at the ceiling. “Are you going to sleep tonight?” 

Red chastised herself as she sat at her locker. That had not been how she intended to begin her conversation. Max answered, “Yes ma’am,” but she could hear the automatic quality of his tone as if that was his go-to response for such questions.

With a sigh, Red slid her chair until she was seated by his head. “I’m sorry, Max. That was abrupt. What I meant to ask was if you could tell me why you’re not sleeping?”

He rolled his head to the side to look at her. She knew he was judging her sincerity and she tried to soften her face. Nicky often told her that her face was scary. “I have nightmares,” he explained, “and sometimes I scream in my sleep. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

Red nodded and ran a hand through her hair. “Of course. You’re going to go to sleep tonight. Let me worry about any disturbances, alright?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Try to go to sleep now,” she said as she stood and moved her chair back to the locker. “You look exhausted.” He nodded and closed his eyes. “Boy, the blanket.” He looked at her in confusion. She grumbled but walked back to pull his folded blanket out from under his feet. She unfurled it and laid it across him. 

“Oh,” he said. “Sorry.”

She shook her head in exasperation and went back to her book on her bunk. Max fell asleep only moments later from the sound of his breathing.


	2. The Secret

Red’s eyes snapped open. She gasped as her heart felt as if it burst out of her chest with the force of an exploding star. “What the fuck?” she demanded of the empty space above her bunk.

She looked around and saw that Max had fallen out of his bunk and thrashed around on the ground. Women around the dorm yelled at whatever had made the noise that woke them. Nicky complained loudly that she had woken from a dream about Lorna and Yoga Jones.

Max bellowed again and his head cracked on the ground as he flung himself away from something Red could not see. The guard bubble door opened and she dropped down next to Max. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close as he tried to get away from her.

The officer, Maxwell, poked her head in and then squared up to them. “What the hell, Red?” Maxwell snapped.

Red held up a placating hand and said, “He’s having a nightmare, I’m sorry. I’ll keep him quiet.”

“Do that.”

Maxwell left and shouted at the other inmates to go back to sleep. The shouts tapered off as people tried to sleep again.

Red held his head against her shoulder and whispered, “Wake up, Max.” The boy opened his eyes. She stroked his hair and continued holding him tightly. “Good boy. When you said you have nightmares, I did not expect this.”

He tried to hide his face, but she caught his chin. “I can tell you are going to be a handful.” She said it without any malice and smiled at him. “You’re more trouble than my three boys together.”

He buried his face in her shoulder, and after a few moments, he had fallen asleep. Red looked around and wondered how she would handle her predicament. Max weighed next to nothing, but she didn’t have the leverage to lift him up. She looked at his hand that rested on her chest, and she saw a mark on his wrist. When she lifted his hand, the light caught on a ragged scar around his pencil-thin forearm. She put that thought aside and sighed.

Resigned, Red pulled her pillow and blanket down to the floor and got herself as comfortable as possible. She grumbled and shifted so that Max’s head was on her shoulder, and she pressed her cheek to his forehead. Her morning would be completely fucked, but as she felt his small breaths against her neck, Red couldn’t bring herself to care about that.

~X~

When Red woke up the next morning, Max was halfway on top of her and seemed to have gained 50 pounds. She wiggled out from under him and set his face on the pillow. Within several minutes, Red was ready to head to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. As she left, Red squatted down and rubbed Max’s back until he blearily opened his eyes and looked at her in confusion.

“Come to breakfast this morning, Max,” she said as sternly as she could to the kid that suddenly looked like a toddler with sleepy eyes and messy hair. He nodded and closed his eyes again.

She left him and proceeded to the kitchen. She was the first one there, as usual, and she opened up and got everything turned on. Claudette and Norma arrived at the same time and began preparing the oatmeal and eggs without a word.

Once everything was running smoothly and the servers arrived, Norma pulled Red into the dry storage, raised an eyebrow, and tilted her head. They had developed a sophisticated method of communication over the years. Red enjoyed Norma's company because the woman never complained and didn't question her.

“He’s fine,” Red said. “Just a nightmare.”

Norma smiled at her and then went back to work. Red directed all the young women to keep things moving efficiently.

When inmates began arriving, Red leaned against the wall by her office door with a cup of coffee and waited. Her annoyance steadily built with each moment that passed without Max making an appearance. She finished her coffee and handed the cup to Gina as the woman passed with a bus tub full of trays.

With only 15 minutes left of breakfast, Max and Nicky walked in. They seemed to be in a deep discussion, and when Red looked closer, it was a disagreement. Max shook his head and straightened his back, physically removing himself from the conversation. Nicky threw her hands up but got in the short line with him.

The two turned after they had their food, and they saw her at the same time. Immediately, Red recognized their guilty looks. They had a secret, and they were trying to keep it from her specifically.

A vivid memory surfaced in Red's mind. Yuri and Vasily had once given her the same looks when they had broken her favorite cup. With her boys, she had given them stern looks as she held the porcelain shards and they had broken down and confessed. That had been such a short time before Red's arrest.

The two people in front of her were not small children afraid of their mother. They were lifelong criminals, hardened by years of mistreatment and abuse. And even given all that, Max looked like he was about to confess to anything, and Nicky appeared seconds from passing out. The wild-haired girl said something out of the corner of her mouth and both turned to walk toward a table at the same time.

Red almost smirked. Never let it be said that she didn’t have a way with people.

Deciding to leave the kids alone for the time being, Red returned to the kitchen to supervise the cleanup.

~X~

Nicky couldn’t help but continue pestering Max. “You have to tell her, man. She’s going to find out, and she’ll be pissed.”

“I can’t. Medical said double portions, but I can barely eat what’s on this tray right now. She’ll be so mad if I don’t eat everything. Look at her. She looks like her face would set hay on fire."

Nicky shook her head but dropped the subject when Lorna dragged her out of the cafeteria. Max stood to bus his tray and as he turned from the trashcan to leave, he heard his name. Max turned and saw Red partway leaned out of her office, and she motioned him over. She disappeared into the office as he approached.

The stern woman was at her desk and looked up at him when he stopped in the doorway.

“Hello Max,” she said with a neutral tone. “Is there something you wanted to say to me?”

A flash of panic crossed his face, but he swallowed and shook his head. “No ma’am.”

She leaned back and clasped her hands together. “You’re new here, but I’m going to tell you now that I do not like being lied to. So if you’re lying, now would be the best time to come clean.”

It was clear he was on the edge of divulging every secret of his life, but he simply shook his head. “No ma’am, nothing.”

“Okay,” Red said. “I’ll see you at lunch. Try to be on time.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He left in a hurry and Red sighed. She would put the screws to Nicky to try to get the secret from her that evening. She tried to think of how to bribe her girl.

~X~

Nicky froze when she saw Red in the entry to her cube. The woman entered and sat next to Nicky without a word. She sat for several minutes until she could tell Nicky was about to combust.

“Honey,” Red said. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

Nicky popped off the bunk and started pacing. “Don’t do this to me, ma. Come on. It’s not fair.”

Well, there was confirmation that there was a secret.

“Just tell me, Nicky.”

“Ma. I can’t break his trust.”

Red nodded and stood up. “Okay.” She started walking toward the exit, but Nicky grabbed her shoulders and hugged her from behind.

“It’s not personal, Ma. But Max doesn’t trust- anybody, and if I tell you, he’ll never trust us again.” Red patted Nicky’s hands.

“It’s okay, Nicky.”

Red did not know how she would regret the brewing anger and resentment she felt.

*******

Max walked to Healy’s office and entered when the man called. He closed the door behind himself and sat.

“Inmate Rogers,” Healy said. “We’ve gone over your file and determined that you may not have a work assignment, due to your history of violence and endangering the lives of others. Do you have any questions?”

A million questions sprang to his mind, but he only asked, “What am I going to do, sir?”

The older man took off his glasses and set them on top of piles of paperwork. “Learn to crochet. Play a lot of solitaire. I don’t care what you do, as long as you stay out of trouble and you don’t go outside. That’s all, inmate. You can go.”

Max went to get his uniform issue after he spoke with Healy. They gave him two pairs of khakis, two tank tops, two pairs of socks, a pair of black work boots, and a sweatshirt. He thanked the woman at the window who looked as though she had seen too many rough nights.

Wanting to avoid it at all costs but unable to, Max returned to his cube. He had tried to spend as little time as possible where Red might find him and give him that stern look that made his elbows sweat.

Instead, he found Nicky on Red’s bunk, with Red’s crocheted blanket around her shoulders. She saw his face and said, “You look like someone just slocked your puppy.”

“They said I can’t have a work assignment.”

“What the fuck! Why?”

Max set all of his new clothing on his locker to organize. He squatted down and opened the empty locker to start shoving stuff in. Nicky, forgetting her previous question, looked at his side of the cube and asked, “Where’s all your shit?”

“What shit?” he asked.

“Like, your toothbrush and your shampoo and your shower shoes? You know, your shit?”

Max swiveled to look at her with his eyebrows drawn together. “I ain’t got any of that.”

“Dude,” she said. “How are you going to do anything if you can’t make money and you don’t have anyone filling your books?”

Max shrugged. “I get by,” he said.

A few hours after she left Max’s pitifully empty bunk, Nicky found Red in her office. “Red,” Nicky said. The older woman jumped and stared at her with an angry look. “Did you know Max doesn’t have anything? He just got uniform issue and his locker is completely empty. How is he brushing his teeth?”

Red looked back to her menu. “I don’t know Nicky. I’ve been up the past three days with his nightmares. I’m tired. And he’s lying to me. So I feel I’m doing quite enough for him at this time by not cutting his throat in his sleep.”

Nicky shook her head and left the office. She went to Lorna, Mercy, Boo, Sister Ingalls, and Norma to see if she could collect anything from them to give to Max. She got half a tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush, a quarter bottle of shampoo, and half a bag of M&M’s.

With her haul in hand, Nicky found Max in his bunk and gave him the pitiful assortment. “What’s this?”

“We got you some stuff. You know, while you get stuff figured out.”

Thus, Nicky had a 10 minute back and forth with Max on whether or not they should give him things. She eventually left the cube, forcing him to accept the items. He smiled as he placed them in his locker. It was the first time in a long time someone had given him something out of kindness.


	3. The Attack

Max had been at Litchfield for a month. Medical had gotten him back on his proper hormone regiment, and he felt mostly better. His appetite had not returned, but the nurse told him the testosterone could help with that after his levels adjusted properly.

He had a chronic stomach ache from the looks Red sent him every so often. He knew she knew he was keeping something from her, but he could not tell her the truth. She would be so angry and disappointed, and he did not think he could stand that.

Max feared Red in a way he had never feared anyone or anything in his life. He was drawn to her, and more than anything, he wanted to please her. She was an exceptionally tough woman, but more than once he had woken up in her arms after a nightmare, with her speaking softly in Russian and stroking his hair.

In all of his 18 years, only one other person had ever treated him like that. Of all of his family, only his oldest brother tried to make his life better instead of worse. Only Freedom had ever comforted him after a nightmare or a run in with their father. Red treated him that same way, like a person worthy of kindness. He felt indebted to her for that, never mind the fact that she otherwise ignored him except to glare at him during the day.

Max was walking to breakfast when a burly CO named Anderson grabbed him by the collar. “Hey, _boy_ , medical wants to see you. Seems they have some _concerns._ ”

After an hour in medical, Max had concerns as well, but they had nothing to do with his weight.

~X~

“Reznikov!” Anderson yelled as he dragged Max into the cafeteria by the collar. His shout startled the women at the tables, who jumped in sync. “Get the fuck out here!” 

Red entered the cafeteria from the kitchen while wiping her hands on a towel. “What is this? I am busy.”

Anderson shoved Max toward Red while maintaining control of his collar. She looked down at the boy, who looked rather terrified. She knew he held no fear of the guards, because more than once she had scolded him for getting mouthy with them. “Did you know this kid has a double portion order from the Doctor?”

Red slowly faced Max but spoke to Anderson, “No, I can’t say that I did.”

Anderson shook Max. “What the _fuck_ , inmate? The doctor said double portions until you gained 15 pounds, and you _lost_ 3 pounds! You got two fucking choices, inmate. Double portions or SHU. _Choose._ ”

Max looked at Red’s face for a long moment. He saw a lot of anger in her eyes, and her hands squeezed the towel she held until the fabric ripped. He then turned to Anderson. “SHU.”

Red’s eyes narrowed at him and she turned on her heel to go back to the kitchen. “Holy shit,” one inmate whispered. The exchange moved across the cafeteria as the women gossiped at high speed.

Anderson stared at him and then radioed, “Control, inmate to SHU.”

“ _S_ _HU is full. Rerouting to max_.”

“Copy,” Anderson said. He grabbed Max and said, “You’re going down the hill, inmate.”

Max made no effort to resist and said nothing as he went. 

“Fuck,” Nicky said, with wide eyes. “He chose SHU over facing Red. That’s some shit.”

Max sat on the bunk and stared at the wall. It occurred to him after the door slammed that he would have to face Red eventually. He looked at his hand cuffed to the bunk frame and wondered if his choice had been logically sound.

It’s not like he was in prison because he made great choices under pressure.

~X~

After two weeks in lockup, they released Max back to camp. Lorna dropped him off at processing, where they told him to return to his usual bunk. He grimaced and entered the prison. As he inspected the gouge in his wrist from the handcuff, Max walked down the hallway until he heard footsteps behind him. Before he could turn, something hit his head.

Max fell into a closet when two hands shoved his lower back. The door closed and the only light came from the small window by the doorknob, and from the crack under the door. He lifted his head slightly and saw a pair of very familiar black shoes. “Fuck.”

A strong hand grabbed his hair and yanked. To save his scalp, Max stood and faced Red. “You chose _maximum security_ over my cooking.” Max tried to shake his head, but her hand tightened in his hair and she yanked on it to tilt his head back. She whispered in her ear, “You chose _adseg_ over eating what I cook. How am I supposed to feel about that? And in front of the entire camp. You lied to me for a month so you wouldn’t be forced to eat more of my cooking.”

“I didn’t-”

She shook him by the hair. “Don’t fucking lie to me, you little shit. I stood right there while you asked the guard to take you to SHU instead of eating my food.”

Max put his hands on her shoulders and said, “That’s not it,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow and said, in a very falsely affirming voice, “It’s not? I did not see what I saw? Maybe _I_ am lying?”

If Max knew one thing, it was a trap. He shook his head again and said, “No, ma’am. I chose SHU because you’re _way_ scarier than solitary and I hoped you might calm down while I was gone.”

That comment certainly did not calm her down. She turned to the left and slammed Max face-first into the wall. He grunted and his hand flew to his nose, where blood spilled out between his fingers. He put his other hand across his bloody hand and tried not to panic. Red stood directly behind him and snarled in his ear, “Do I seem calm?”

“Doe,” he said through his bleeding nose. She pulled his head back and then slammed him into the wall again. He made a squeaking sound that he would never admit to when his forehead hit the concrete.

“What was that?” she demanded in a whisper. She pulled his head back and he whimpered. Instead of slamming his face again, she whispered to him, “The answer is that I _am_ calmer than when you left. I requested a new bunkie.” She did crack his face into the concrete again then. Max tried to grab her arm, but she smacked his hand. “They denied me, so I’m stuck with your ungrateful, useless piece of shit self.” 

She let go of his hair and he said, “I’be soddy.”

Giving him a slap to the back of the head, Red responded, “You won’t speak to me unless I ask to hear your stupid voice.” 

Max fell forward like a sack of flour when a wave of dizziness overcame him. He tried to reach for Red, but she stepped on his arm with as much force as she could. Max felt the bone crunch and he pulled his arm to his body. He tried to say something, but all that came out was a whimper. Red gave him one last dark look.

The door slammed behind her as she left.

Max dragged himself to the wall and grabbed a rag from the nearby mop bucket to staunch the blood from his face. The rag soaked and he wiped the blood that dripped into his eye from the gash on his forehead. It didn’t take a lot for him to realize it was too much blood for him to deal with on his own. 

It took a huge amount of effort for him to stand and then stumbled out to the hallway. He tried to turn toward medical, but he only got halfway turned before he collapsed on the floor. 

“Oh fuck,” new CO Bennet said as he saw Max on the floor in a puddle of blood. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He grabbed his radio and said, “Medical emergency to hallway A, inmate unconscious.”

It took a few minutes for two guards to arrive with a stretcher and load Max on to medical. That left Bennet with the bloodstain. He had to take pictures of the area and followed the blood back to the janitor's closet, where he found much more blood. His eyes widened at the sheer volume, and he took as many pictures as he could.

~X~

Red returned to her kitchen to finish clean up. Dinner had ended while she spoke with Max in the closet. Gina gave her a look. Red knew the girl would never say a word about what had transpired. Gina had pushed Max into the closet for her, for a container of face wash and a bag of Skittles.

She pushed thoughts of Max out of her mind as she scrubbed counters, cut vegetables, and set up for the next morning. When everything was prepared and cleaned, she retired to her office and looked over her next vegetable order. She received a shipment of vegetables once a week, and inside the boxes were other goods she requested. 

The vegetable vendor owed her a great debt for her silence regarding their illegal business practices. Red monetized that debt in the form of weekly deliveries of items she used to bribe and sell to the other inmates.

As Red finished the order and sat back in her chair, her mind wandered back to Max. She rubbed her face as anger throbbed in her veins again. She could not believe that some punk had stood in front of the entire cafeteria full of women and basically said he would rather do anything rather than eat the food she cooked.

Nicky appeared at the locked gate and curled her fingers around the wire mesh. Her wild hair was larger than usual, a sign she had run her hands through it, as she often did when she was anxious.

"Red, someone fucking tried to kill Max. That new buff CO found him covered in blood with like half his head caved in."

Red stood and arranged her face into an expression of surprise. "How is he?"

~X~

Max opened his eyes and tried to figure out where he was. It did not look like seg or his bunk, but the sounds reminded him of a hospital. “Fuck me,” he said. “What happened?”

Someone blurry appeared in his field of vision. “Hello, Rogers,” a nurse said. “We bandaged you up. You’ll be going back to your bunk in a few minutes. You won’t be doing much for a week, at least.”

“I can’t see,” he said. He tried not to panic, but sight was a very dear skill of his. To wake up to nothing but blur set him on the very edge. Without being able to see, he was not sure how he would do anything.

“That’s normal with the severe concussion you have. Your vision will come back by tomorrow, I’m sure.” The nurse asked some questions and then helped him stand. “All right, all set to go.”

With that, Max was left to make his way back to his bunk on his own. He stumbled a few times and finally walked into Caputo, directly into the man’s back. “What the _fuck_ Rogers? What happened to you?”

“Medical told me to go back to my bunk, sir.”

“Jeez, here,” the older man said as he grabbed Max’s shoulder. “I’ll walk you.”

Caputo asked what happened multiple times, but Max would only say that he did not know, he just remembered talking to Morello in the van.

He walked into A Dorm with Max, and several girls craned their necks to get a look at him. They whispered, which increased in intensity as Caputo led Max to his bunk. They were all suspicious because there was only one person they could imagine beating down Max so brutally.

Red was seated in her chair when Caputo entered with Max. He tried again to get the story. “Are you sure you don’t remember what happened?”

“No, sir. Morello picked me up at max and we talked about either apples or tornadoes, and then I woke up in medical.”

“Look, Max, I know how this works,” Caputo dug. “I’ve seen this before. Tell me who jumped you.”

Max tried to lay down but it felt like the earth started spinning 10 times faster. He grabbed the wall and tried to sit back up before he could vomit. “Sir, I’m not doing so guuhhhbb-“ Max rolled off the bunk and fell to the ground.

Caputo said, “Aw, shit. Red, help me out.” Caputo grabbed Max’s legs under the knees. Red tried to grab Max by the shoulders, but he flinched violently. More observant than people assumed, Caputo slowly looked to Red. “No,” he said. “Come on, Red. He’s a _kid_.”

She met his eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Is this because I didn’t approve the transfer? I didn’t think you’d try to _kill_ him. I’m- Red, he’s only 18.” Seemingly forgetting about the boy on the ground, Caputo continued, “Do you know anything about him? I can’t imagine you would do this to him if you did.”

“I know enough, and I did nothing to him.”

They got Max into the bunk with minimal struggle. Red checked his bandage and said to Caputo, “He is unconscious. Why did he leave medical?” 

“We’re booked up. There was a brawl down the hill. He does look bad though. This is fucked.”

Caputo left Red with Max. She looked at him with a critical eye. They had not changed him out of his shirt. A large red and brown stain covered the khaki shirt. Red looked down the neckline and saw dried blood all over his chest. The fabric of his shirt had dried to his skin in several places. 

She should have realized exactly how it would play out. She ran her finger down his jaw and watched as his eyes opened. She saw his face fill with panic and he tried to sit up. Red pressed a hand to pin him to the mattress. “Do not move,” she said with a stern edge to her voice. 

He stopped struggling, but he shook in place. His eyes followed her as she moved, but she saw they weren’t in focus. She leaned down and whispered to him, “I will keep you alive because I am a decent person, but _do not expect anything else from me_.”

She did just that. She kept him alive but did not do anything else. His blood-stained shirt remained stuck to his chest for two days as he laid on his bunk and tried to make the world stop spinning. She held him against the outer cube wall for each count and then dropped him back on his bunk. The whole time she had to interact with him, she muttered about how useless he was. Once a day, she forced water down his throat. 

Dragging himself to the bathroom proved ineffective. He could not stand without a splitting pain in his head. To compensate, he dropped himself out of his bunk and dragged himself across the floor as other inmates watched. Blood streaked behind him as his nose bled again.

“Fuck, nobody going to help?” Nicky asked. She took Max’s arm and helped drag him across the floor. “Concussion, right? How bad?”

“Who are you?”

“Oh _fuck._ ” 

Nicky tried to get him on the toilet, but he threw up when his head lifted more than three feet off the ground. Covered in vomit, Nicky said, “Don’t fucking die kid.” She looked around and then shouted, “Can I get some help here?”

Red came around the corner and observed Max and Nicky covered in puke and blood, with Max flopped over to the side. Nicky’s imploring eyes met Red’s. “Ma, please help.” 

Red looked at Max for another long second, and she said, “He looks fine to me.” She turned and walked out of the bathroom.

“Ma! Please ma!” When Red did not return, Nicky screamed, “Guard! Guard!”

Maxwell entered and then radioed for medical help. She tried to get Max to respond, but his eyes went back in his head as he went completely limp on top of Nicky. Maxwell panicked and then screamed into the radio, “Holy shit I think he just died!”

In the heat of the moment, Maxwell held the radio button down. Everyone within earshot of a guard heard Nicky yell, “No, Max, no! Wake up! _Wake up_!”

Caputo ran to the Suburb bathroom as quickly as he could. Bennet followed right behind him, and Bell met them in hallway C. They bellowed at inmates to scatter as they ran. Inmates jumped out of the way and watched in concern, surprised at the ferocity of response. 

When Caputo arrived, he saw a panicked guard and a hysterical inmate, and Max was unresponsive. He told Bell to radio for a gurney, stat, and to have an ambulance called. 

He looked back to Max and tried to get Nichols to move away, but she didn’t seem inclined. 

Then Max began seizing. His entire body thrashed and jerked around. Caputo tried to remember what to do for a person having a seizure, but all he could think to do was yell at Bell to get the ambulance there faster. Bell raised her hands in frustration, unable to make the ambulance appear out of thin air. Max stopped seizing after what felt like hours to Caputo. 

When the gurney arrived, they quickly threw Max on and wheeled him out of the bathroom. As they walked through the dorm, Caputo watched Red closely. She stood with Norma and Gina, and she watched the gurney pass with a cold look in her eye. Caputo glared at her as he followed the boy out of the dorm. 

Officer Bell helped Nicky back to her bunk, as the girl was crying too hard to walk. 

Gina looked up at Red and said, “I didn’t know it was going to be like that. He’s family, I didn’t think you would do this, Red.” The smaller woman turned her back on Red and walked from the dorm.

Red walked back to her cube without a word. She sat on her bunk and stared at Max’s side of the cube. There were bloodstains on his pillow and sheets. When she looked closely, she saw a streak of blood on the wall. 

Red stripped his bunk and shoved everything in his laundry bag to take down to the girls to wash. 

When she finished, she sat at her locker to touch up her makeup. She saw the reflection of his locker in her mirror. There was nothing on top of it, and she knew that it held the barest of essentials inside.

Norma stopped by Red's cube and tilted her head. Red sighed and set her eyeliner down. "What?"

The silent woman shook her head and walked to her cube on the other side of the dorm. Red went back to her mirror. She had known her family would not understand. Only Norma and Gina were aware it had been her to hurt Max. They disapproved, but they did what she said anyway. 

~X~

After Max had been in medical for two weeks, Gina, Nicky, and Norma stopped Bell in the cafeteria to ask about him. “Aw, jeez,” Bell said. “He’s not here. They took him to Lexington. His skull was split in three places, we don’t have the resources for that.”

Gina asked, “But is he going to be okay?” 

Bell looked at each of them. “I don’t know. He was seizing when they put him in the ambulance. That’s all I know.”

Nicky did not speak to Red until she heard that Max was on his way back, and then she cornered the older woman in the kitchen to demand to know why she had left them lying on the bathroom floor. 

Red turned to Nicky and snapped, “He insulted me.”

Nicky’s mouth dropped open. “You- were willing to let him _die_ on a bathroom floor in a prison, covered in his own vomit and blood, because he was afraid of you hurting him over not telling you about the double portions?”

“What? No! He chose SHU over my food, in front of everyone!”

Nicky felt baffled as she raised her hands over her head. “Are you insane? He was afraid you’d hurt him because he lied. He-” Nicky took half a step back and shook her head as she tried to deny the thought that began to grow in her brain. “No, no. No, Red. Please tell me you didn’t do this. Other girls said it but I didn’t want to believe it. Please.”

Red crossed her arms. “How I handle my business-”

“Holeeee _shit_. Ma, no.” Nicky grabbed her hair and began pacing. “Oh my god, ma. He- ma.” Agitated, Nicky sat on a box of potatoes. “He died, ma.”

Red’s arms dropped to her sides and she took a hesitant step toward Nicky. “What?”

Nicky nodded. “Massive brain hemorrhage. He had a seizure and then he died.”

Nicky appreciated that Red’s eyes filled with tears. “I did not mean for him to die. I just wanted to teach him not to insult me. He’s just a baby.”

Red thought of all the times she had seen her boy laugh and smile from across the cafeteria. All the times she had held him during a nightmare and he had begged her not to leave him alone while his body shook and sweat poured from his face.

Then she thought about Max laying in his bunk for days, covered in blood and struggling to breathe. She had said so many mean things to him while she dragged him back and forth for the count. His eyes had looked at her in a daze, so wide and barely understanding what was going on around him.

It only took another moment for Red to begin crying. Nicky let her cry for several minutes as she stood by and watched, like Red had in the bathroom. “I’m fucking with you, Red. Max should be back in your cube now.” The angry look Red gave her was worth the sudden light in the older woman’s eye as she left the kitchen in a hurry. Nicky called after her, “Hey, how much commissary food have you seen him eat?”

Red nearly ran to get back to her cube. When she arrived, she dismissed the crowd of people that had gathered. Max laid on the bunk without bandages. His face was bruised even three weeks after the assault. Chunks of his hair were shaved and she could see stitches. It also made a scar visible that she had never seen before, one that ran from his hairline to the crown of his head. Red heard Nicky’s words, _he died, ma,_ echo in her head.

She approached the boy, who saw her and then curled up. He said, “No, no, no.”

“Max, Max, I’m sorry.” He continued to try to crawl away and Red grabbed him. He struggled harder and tried to get out of her arms. The fact that he was too weak to get away from her worried Red. “Shh, shh, Max, it’s okay. It’s okay, I’m here for you."

“Please don’t hurt me, please,” he said. Red wrapped her arms around him more fully and squeezed him tightly. His pleas turned into small cries. “Please, please, please.”

_He died, ma._

“Shh, baby. Be quiet. No one is going to hurt you. You’re safe. You’re safe now.”

Max pulled away from her and shook his head. “No, mean Red, no, no.”

With a sinking heart, Red straightened up and looked down at him. He was close to hyperventilating as he pressed himself into the wall. None of her experience as a mother in the free world or in prison prepared her for the situation huddled in front of her. 


	4. Less Eggplant

Red stood in Caputo’s office. She kept her face blank as her mind raced with various fears. Caputo knew she had attacked Max. One mistake, one camera turned without her knowledge, and she could go down for a very long time. Longer than her family would be willing to wait.

Caputo sat at his desk and glared at her. His anger left his mustache shaking as he tapped his finger on his armrest. He had been at the prison for over 20 years, and the one thing he couldn't stand was knowing something he couldn't prove.

“Well, no one is talking. I know you did this Red, but I can’t prove it. Let me tell you, if that kid gets hurt in any way, a paper cut, a stubbed toe, whatever, I’ll take your ass to SHU. I’ll bury you so far down the rabbit hole that your name will be erased from the memory of your family, and your grandchildren will grow up saying _baba who._ Do you fucking understand me?”

Red nodded. She stared straight ahead and thought about Max back on his bunk. “I’ll keep him safe.”

Caputo stood up and pointed at her with his whole hand. “I don’t think you understand the _seriousness_ of what’s happening here. The Warden is very _interested_ in Max Rogers, and has every intention of milking Max’s situation outside of prison for everything it’s worth. He will be _very_ angry with any inmate here who interferes with that. And now, Max Rogers has untold brain damage. To enunciate, you attacked, damn near _killed_ , an 18-year-old _child_ who weighs 110 pounds- a kid that’s literally been fucked over by everybody in his life. You’re a monster, Reznikov.”

He waved her out of the office and she left with a lump in her throat. She wasn’t sure why she could feel her heartbeat in her knees. But she could.

Back in her cube, Red sat on her chair next to Max’s bunk. She stroked his hair until he looked at her. His unfocused eyes looked around wildly and then settled in her general direction. “Nice Red?” he whispered. 

She didn’t know what he meant, but she hoped it would be a way to get him to trust her again. “Yes,” she said softly, “nice Red.”

He relaxed and wiggled as close to her as he could get. The Velcro on the soft cast on his arm caught in his blanket and he let out a small sound of pain. She unstuck him and pulled him close, until his upper body was on her lap. 

They stayed like that for hours. She dozed off hunched over him until he woke up with a nightmare. He looked around and then pulled himself away from her, back to the wall. “No, mean Red, mean Red,” he said.

“No,” she said as quietly as she could. “Nice Red.”

“ _No_ , daytime. Mean Red.”

A horrible idea blossomed in the back of her mind. Before Max had gone to SHU, she had cuddled him during his nightmares- but otherwise, she had treated him poorly. She had even slapped his hand away when he offered to help her up from her chair. He had left the cube and Red struggled through terrible back pain for several minutes before she could rise.

Max, with his head injury barely healed and hopped up on pain meds, had processed all that as a Red that was nice to him at night, and a Red that was mean to him during the day. She looked and saw the sunrise through the windows.

Hoping to recapture the gentle feelings from only a few minutes before, Red reached out to him again. He shook so hard his bunk rattled. Someone yelled for quiet, and Red backed away. Max calmed and she felt her heart shatter.

She sat in her chair again and stared at him.

Before Red could formulate a plan, CO Anderson and a nurse appeared in their cube. “Inmate Rogers, you’ve lost three more pounds, in direct violation of your agreement with medical. You’re going to SHU.”

Red leaped to her feet and stood between Max and the guards, “What? He has only just left medical. He will eat, I swear it. I will make sure.”

Anderson elbowed Red aside and grabbed Max’s shoulders to haul him up. Red covered her mouth with her hand. She saw the barely healed wounds on his arm where a cuff had dug into his skin, as he was restrained to a bunk for two weeks. 

“This is immoral,” Red snapped. 

Anderson looked to Red and said, “Listen, little faggy wonder violated the agreement. He’s going to SHU.”

Max didn’t struggle. He went quietly even as Red threw her mirror across the cube.

It was another week before Red saw Max. He reappeared in his bunk and looked worse than Red had ever seen. Without delay, Red called over her girls and made arrangements for supplies. She sat on Max’s bunk and said, “Max, baby, sweet boy, what’s going on?”

He opened his eyes and winced. “Ow.”

“Did they hurt you? You can tell me anything, Max. I’m here for you.”

“I just want to sleep, please.”

“Of course, I’m sorry Max.” When she tried to stand, Max took her wrist in a light grip. 

“Please don’t go.”

She nodded and laid down beside him. He pressed himself into her side and wrapped an arm around her abdomen. “I’ll stay as long as you want me, Max.” She felt him fall asleep and listened as his breathing evened out.

Nicky walked into the cube and sat on Red’s bunk. “So,” she said, “how is he?”

“He’s saying more words that make sense,” Red said in a way that was much more positive than she felt.

“Oh, good,” Nicky said with her own sarcastic drawl, “so less of an eggplant, more just retarded. I’m sure he’ll be happy to know that.”

“Nicky, please,” Red said. “I made a mistake. A terrible, awful mistake. But I’m trying to make it better.” Nicky looked at her for several moments before she nodded. 

“They’re pooling stuff for him,” Nicky said as an obvious topic change. “Even some of the Spanish mamis are pitching in.” Red gave her a questioning look. “Max is nice to everyone. Calls everyone ma’am, opens doors for people, carries heavy stuff. And- they rolled him through the hallways to medical, and he was all bloody and seizing and screaming. Lorna said it was the scariest thing she’d ever seen. Apparently, Gloria started grabbing hands and led a prayer.”

Red nodded absentmindedly. 

“I’m going to make this up to him,” Red said. “I’m going to take care of him. I promise, Nicky.”

Her daughter smiled at her. “I know. You hate failure and this has got to be the biggest failure of your life right here.”

Red turned to look at Max, who was clinging tightly to her side. 

Officer Bell popped her head into the cube and made a face that neither Nicky nor Red could identify. She used her hands to make several frantic gestures they couldn't interpret before she slid to the side.

A tall black man in a suit appeared in the entryway. Bell said, “Warden Young, this is Inmate Rogers. He’s- next to Inmate Reznikov.”

The Warden smiled the same smile most political candidates smile. “Taking good care of him, I see. That’s good.” The Warden leaned against the inside wall and said, “I’ve worked in prisons for many years, and I’ve never had an inmate like Max Rogers. What a case.”

Nicky, who stared at the Warden with both confusion and surprise, said, “We think he’s cool.”

“Cool? He’s a hero.” Nicky’s eyes got wider. All she could hear between her ears was a sizzling sound. The Warden smiled and glanced at Bell. “Good call, allowing Max whatever comfort he can get during this terrible experience.” Warden Young gave the CO a look. Then he lowered his voice and said to Red, “I know it’s not really proper, but can you give him this when he wakes up?”

The Warden pulled out an envelope and set it at the end of the bed. His gaze lingered a moment where Max’s feet dangled over the end. Then he smiled and bid them good afternoon. Bell followed him out of the dorm. 

Nicky stared at Red in confusion. “Have you ever seen the Warden?”

“Not in all the time I've been here,” Red answered. She looked down at her boy and wondered what about him had the Warden so interested. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am having the worst time with formatting. My apologies if the story is inconsistently formatted.
> 
> For clarification because there's no real way to fit it in the story, the first chapter started roughly 16 months before Chapman arrives at Litchfield


	5. Dateline

Red opened her eyes when she felt Max move. He stared at her with fear clearly written on his face. He whispered, “I’m sorry,” as he backed away from her toward the wall.

A sigh rushed out of her. Tired, irritable, and out of patience, Red grabbed him and dragged him back to her side. He tensed and his breathing sped up. She rubbed his back and whispered to him, “Calm down, boy. I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe.”

They stayed like that until Red had to prepare for the day. When she had to leave him, she kissed his forehead and said, “I’ll be in the kitchen. If you need anything, just send someone.”

Red walked to the kitchen with a feeling of concern deep in her gut. Since Max had returned from SHU, he had barely moved. He made it to the bathroom once a day, but Red was not sure he had showered.

Preoccupied as she was, Red burned a tray of toast. Gina and Norma stared at her until Gina said, “Some of the ladies like it a little darker.” She took the tray out to the line.

Norma tilted her head at Red. “I’m fine,” Red said while she prepared another tray of toast.

When Gina returned, she said, “Are you going to the movie tonight, Red?”

“Perhaps.”

After her long day in the kitchen, Red did not want to be waylaid on her way to her cube, but there Nicky stood.

“Ma!” the girl said as she walked up and grabbed Red by the upper arms. Red shrugged her off and asked what had happened. “Max is doing so much better today. He’s actually talking like his brain isn’t made out of old fruit.”

Red smiled and continued the walk to the dorm with Nicky. Sister Ingalls and Yoga Jones stood by Max’s bunk in her cube when Red entered. Max’s smile faded when she walked in, but she made up for it with her own.

“Hi, Max,” she said. “It’s so good to see you up. How do you feel?”

“Fine, ma’am,” he said.

“I’m glad,” she said as she sat at her locker.

The two older women made their excuses to leave, and Red stared at Nicky until she retreated as well. When they were alone, Red stood and moved closer to Max. He kept his gaze on the floor and he made himself smaller the closer she got.

She sat next to him and put an arm around his shoulders. He shook against her.

“I didn’t tell anyone,” he whispered. “Please don’t hurt me.”

“Oh, no, no, sweet child,” Red said. She kissed the side of his head and held him tightly against her. “I'm not good at apologies. I usually just make people deal with me.” She pulled back to look him in the eye. “I’m very sorry. I did not intend to cause you this much harm. I will do everything I can to make this up to you.”

He looked at her with his eyebrows drawn together. He blinked and then said, “Do you mean that, ma’am?”

She gave him a soft smile and said, “I do. I mean that I’m sorry and I mean that I’ll make it up to you.” She ran a gentle finger over the bruise on his forehead. He flinched, but otherwise stayed next to her. “How do you feel?”

He looked away from her. “I’m very tired, and my head hurts. I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Max,” Red whispered. She leaned forward and looked over the scar on his hairline. “I’ll take care of you, okay? This won’t happen again.” Red felt emotion bubble in her chest until it overwhelmed her and she dropped her head to hide her sudden tears. “I’m so sorry, Max.”

He squeezed her hand. “You’re not mad at me?”

Red’s stomach lanced with pain and it radiated to her chest. “No, Max. No, I’m not mad at you. I overreacted and should have spoken to you before I did anything. May I talk to you now?” she asked. He nodded. “You were supposed to eat double portions?”

She held him so he couldn’t draw away. “Yes, I’m sorry. I just- eating is very hard. I didn’t mean to hurt you, it’s- when I- I don’t know how to explain this. I didn’t eat a lot before I came here. Now, when I eat, it hurts and makes me nauseated. I’m sorry.”

Red wrapped another arm around him and rubbed his back. “It’s okay. I should have noticed. Nicky said you chose SHU because I scared you and you didn’t want to upset me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

That made Red feel worse. She enjoyed that those around her feared her just enough to respect her. She did not want her family to be genuinely scared of her. Red prided herself on taking care of those she cared for, not hurting them. “I’m sorry that- that I scared you. I’m sorry I treated you so poorly.” She saw Max lying in his blood-stained shirt, shaking and whimpering as she roughly pulled him up for count. Then she saw something else that froze her blood. She saw Ilya in a trash bag in her freezer, another young man who had suffered because of her. Red thought of how close she had come to being responsible for another boy’s death.

Tears returned. Red tried to discreetly wipe them away, but Max caught her hand. He pulled back and looked at her with a curious expression. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, honey. I’m just upset with myself.” He wiped the tear tracks from her face with his thumb, and Red smiled at him. “You are a wonder, Max. Do you want to go to movie night with me?”

A small smile parted his face. “Yes, please.”

“First we’re going to get you a shower.”

His smile faltered. “Oh.”

Twenty minutes later, Max was stripped down to his boxers in the shower as Red held him with one arm and rubbed shampoo into his hair with the other. She carried most of his weight on her bent leg, since he was rather weak from captivity. His right hand held the partition to keep his cast out of the water. “Eyes closed, head underwater. Good boy.”

After his hair was rinsed, Red grabbed a bottle of body wash from the divider and squeezed a generous amount into her hands. She did her best to lather the cream before she rubbed it on every bit of Max’s skin she could reach, from his face to the waistband of his boxers. She wished she had a washcloth available, but someone had stolen her spare. Red made a mental note to track that person down.

Max sidetracked her revenge fantasy with a question. “What’s that smell?”

Red laughed and answered, “Lemon and ginger. You’re going to smell like me, but at least you won’t smell like a teenage boy.”

His sudden laugh almost jolted him out of her arms, but she caught him as best she could with her leg.

Max sat on her bent leg and looked up at her over his shoulder. “My life’s really taken me unexpected places. How about you?”

She laughed and started to rinse him off. He squealed and squirmed when her fingers brushed his ribs. Red was amused at the ticklish reaction, but also concerned that she could see his ribs so clearly. Once he was done, she wrapped a towel around him and set him on the bench just outside the shower.

“Sit here while I clean up,” she said. He nodded and closed his eyes. Red quickly undressed, washed, and rinsed herself. She stopped the water and could hear women whisper by the sinks.

“I can’t believe she got away with it. Did you see his face, all broken and shit? She must have some serious pull.”

“Shhh, they’re right there, stupid!”

Red felt a familiar stab in her chest as she thought back to Max staring up at her from the floor of a closet, covered in blood and scared.

Red wrapped towels around herself and opened the shower curtain. Max’s eyes opened and he smiled at her. She smiled back even as she felt guilt settle over her like an oppressive heat.

She helped Max back to their cube and she dressed as he sat on his bunk with his eyes closed again. She collected his clothes and handed them to him. He draped the towel across his lap and changed his boxers out of sight before he stood up to dress.

As he pulled on his khaki pants, Red watched his back. Aside from every single one of his bones being visible, he had numerous scars and several tattoos.

“Max, turn around,” she said. He turned to face her as he held his tank top in his hands. He looked curious but a little nervous.

She stepped toward him and moved his hands away from his sides. She saw many more scars and a few more tattoos. The longer she stared at him the more self-conscious he became. “Ma’am?”

“Go ahead.” He pulled his tank top on and clipped his name tag to it. He pulled on socks and his boots and then looked at Red.

“Wonderful,” she said because she didn't know what else to say. “Let’s go.” She held out her arm for him to take and they walked together to the rec room.

Norma reserved her usual seats for her. She and Max sat in the front row, with the rest of her family around her. She turned to Nicky on her left and asked her about the new arrivals. After Nicky told her all about them, Red turned to Max. He flinched and his eyes widened before he took a breath and smiled at her.

“Do you want a snack?” she asked him quietly.

“No, thank you, ma’am,” he replied. She smiled and patted his leg.

CO Anderson stood in front of the screen and looked at the inmates with a glare. “Listen up, we got a special event for you all. Sorry to those of you that were looking forward to seeing _Love, Actually_ for the fourth fucking time this year. Tonight, we’ll be watching a Dateline special.”

Red heard Max whisper, “Oh fuck me.”

Anderson said, “I’m so excited, I even brought a soundbar, so even you unlucky ladies without headphones can hear.” That caught Red's attention. In all her years, they had never used a speaker for movie night. Something felt extremely wrong with the whole situation.

The Dateline theme played as Anderson walked away. Then a woman with blonde hair was speaking on the screen. Max sank down into his seat and his hands balled into fists.

Red felt concerned for precisely one moment until she felt dawning horror.

The next forty-five minutes were some of the most stressful of Red's life. She learned more about Max from the special than she had sharing a bunk with him. It was heartbreaking to watch.

Max had captured the treatment of his family on camera, and spent years posting the videos online. Despite a large viewership, nothing had ever been done to mitigate the abuse. By 14, Max lived in a truck and spent the majority of his time drinking, antagonizing the local sheriff department, and singing.

His singing was phenomenal, based on the few clips the special showed. Red had never heard of singers posting videos online for views, but the special documented that millions of people had watched Max's songs. He was "YouTube famous" as the host of the show put it.

Some of the videos he posted were of ridiculous shenanigans, the likes of which made Red want to scold him even years later. Having spent a good chunk of her life either in New York City or prison, Red considered guns something criminals used. Max apparently considered guns an extension of his hand, based on how often his videos featured some form of weapon.

He also seemed to possess a stunning lack of self-preservation. He laughed off injuries that looked devastating. Red saw the origin of many of his scars, and she made a mental note to ask him about them in more detail.

What stuck most in Red's mind was the way Max's parents treated him. By all accounts, she was a stern parent. But she would never even consider any of the actions the Rogers family took against Max. They starved him, beat him, whipped him. According to the special, Max had spent an unspecified amount of time forced to live in the doghouse in the backyard.

Then, of course, was the murder.

Deathly silence revealed the revelation that Max had murdered someone. He had not yet faced trial for the murder, only RICO charges related to his shenanigans.

At 17, Max had murdered a local deputy. Brutally, from the description of the murder scene. To add to the drama of the situation, the murder occurred after the local deputies, two of his brothers included, had kept Max chained in a closet in the sheriff's office, ostensibly after arresting him.

The special came to an end with the horrifying fact that Max faced the death penalty for the crime, and would go to trial in the next several months.

The screen went blank and the lights went on. Red’s Family didn’t move and didn’t speak, but the rest of the inmates burst into conversation. The women discussed every aspect of the special they had just seen. Red slowly looked at Max’s face. He was ashen, and he looked frozen.

The rec room eventually cleared except for Red, Max, and Nicky. A CO barked for them to leave. Red glanced around to see if Anderson hung back, but he had not. Red had some choice words for him, but she was glad she would not be able to say them that night. Max needed her more than she needed to go to SHU.

“We’re going to go now, Max,” Red said. He didn’t move and he didn’t look at her. Red switched to a somewhat sterner tone. “Max. Stand up.” Red stood and he followed her without hesitation. She continued with her slightly stern tone. “We’re going to the cube now.” He walked with her and Nicky walked behind them, also in a daze.

Back in their cube, Red sat Max on his bunk. Nicky excused herself and went to her own cube. It was not often she was speechless. He stared at her with a blank look. Red had seen Max say and do things that would make most people run scared of him, but when she looked at him, he looked like a lost and terrified little boy.

Red took off his boots and set them aside. She sat beside him and pulled him against her tightly. “Talk to me, Max.”

“That was awful,” he said in a monotone. She put her cheek on top of his head.

“Keep talking, honey.”

“Seeing all that, it doesn't even feel like it was me, you know? It feels so strange, seeing what I've done and been through from that sort of outsider view. And now it's all out there, people here know everything about me."

Red stroked his far cheek with the back of her fingers. “I’m glad to know,” she said. “I know so much more about you. You make much more sense to me.” Red pulled him down so he was lying in her lap, and she hugged him to her chest. He remained stiff but moved as she directed. “I’m going to take care of you, Max. You’re safe now.”

Bit by bit, Max relaxed on her. “I haven’t felt safe in a very long time.”

That hardly surprised Red. “Trust me, honey. You’re mine now.” Blue eyes stared at her as if searching for the truthfulness of her statement. To help alleviate his fears, Red said, “I’m sorry about the pain I caused you, kid. That won’t happen again. From now on, anyone that hurts you answers to me.”

Something in her voice must have convinced him, because he nodded and laid his head against her.


	6. Family Now

Max woke up long before he opened his eyes. He felt someone next to him. His heart rate spiked and he grabbed his chest. Whoever was next to him rolled and whispered, “Are you okay, Max?” The voice was soft and came from right above his head.

After he determined he was not in immediate danger, Max answered, “I’m fine. Sorry, ma’am.”

A hand gently landed on his chest and rubbed circles there. “I have to get up anyway.”

Red sat up and dropped her feet to the floor. She looked down at Max and saw he followed her movements closely. Determined to gain his trust, she only gave him a soft smile. “I want you to come to the kitchen with me, Max. I’d like you to stay close.”

She collected her shower supplies and then made her way to the showers. Norma held a stall for her and she cleaned up quickly. When she stepped out of the stall, the other women dropped their eyes and avoided looking at her. Red was a modest woman and did not flounce about half, or fully, naked as some of the women did, but she had never experienced the women actively avoiding looking at her.

Deciding to ignore the strange behavior, Red brushed her teeth and then returned to the dorm. She found Max sitting on his bunk, fully dressed and staring at the ground. “Hi, honey. How do you feel?”

“I don’t know what painkillers they gave me, but that was awful. I feel like I been sleepwalking since I was in the hospital. Did I go to SHU?"

"Yes. They said you lost weight. You were in there a week. I'm sorry."

"Not your fault. Lot of the COs are pissed because I killed a brother in blue or whatever. Anderson especially. It happens. I just can't believe I can't really remember it."

As Red walked by, she put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “We’ll get you better. I’m concerned about you eating.”

“They have me taking anti-nausea medication and somethin that’s supposed to make me hungry.” He looked down and rubbed the back of his neck. "And uh, my hormones and stuff. So the doctor thinks I should be hungrier."

“Good,” she said. “I want to get some weight on you.”

They walked to the kitchen as soon as Red was ready. Max sat on a hand washing sink and listened as Red spoke about anything she could think of. Every so often, she handed him something to eat. When he ate it, Red tried to hide her joy so he didn't become uncomfortable.

Once she had given him a few bites of various things, Red wanted to try something more substantial. “Try this,” Red said as she handed him a fried egg sandwich. He looked at it in distrust until he took a small bite. His face lit up and he ate the whole sandwich. Red smiled and went back to work.

Throughout the early morning, Max gradually spoke more and more. Red noticed that his accent was thickest when he was tired or irritated, but otherwise it was a mild and pleasant drawl. “Do you like to read, Max?”

He didn't answer for a moment, and Red glanced at him.

“Ain’t had much chance, ma’am, since I left school.”

“I enjoy reading,” she said, “keeps my mind occupied. Maybe you can try it in your free time.”

Gloria Mendoza walked into the kitchen right before they would start serving. Red watched her suspiciously while the other kitchen workers sent furtive glances between her and Red.

The Puerto Rican woman walked up to Max without sparing anyone else a glance and she handed him a mug. He raised an eyebrow at her as he took it. “It’s tea,” explained Gloria. “It helps with recovery from injuries. Drink it fast.”

Max did as she said and finished the mug. She took it back from him, put a hand on his knee, and said, “You’re a good kid, Max.”

A small smile played across his face. She squeezed his knee and left.

Red came to his side and put her hand on his forehead. “Are you dizzy, cramping?”

Max let out a small laugh as he playfully shoved her hand away and said, “She’s not trying to kill me, Red.”

Red ran her hand through his hair and then went back to directing people around the kitchen. Max said, “Do you think-” he trailed off as Red looked at him over her glasses. “Sorry, never mind.”

Turning to Gina, Red quietly said, “Get Max a tray, double portions.”

Gina rolled her eyes, but Red cut off her argument with a glare. The younger woman stormed to the serving line and returned a few moments later. Max was staring at his hands in his lap when she shoved the tray at him. “Oh. Thanks, Gina! That was really nice of you.” She stared at him for a moment before she nodded and walked away.

Max ate his tray with a contented smile. Red couldn’t help but look over at him every so often with a feeling of pride.

When Gloria sat down with Aleida, Maritza, and Juanita, they asked her if he drank the tea. “He did.”

“Did you tell him what it does?” Maritza asked with suspicion.

“Something like that,” Gloria responded.

*****

Max excused himself to work out after lunch. Women gave him strange looks as he passed, and he had no idea what they were thinking when they saw him. Even those that had not seen the Dateline special had heard all about it from the other women.

He went back to his cube and started an ab workout. Though he had eaten more food than he usually ate in a week, Max felt hungry before he was done with sit ups. The new experience made Max uncomfortable. He didn’t know how to respond to the feeling. Even before he had been arrested and kept in a closet, food had never been his main priority.

When Max stood to change his workout, Big Boo and Mercy walked into his cube. Mercy sat on Red's bunk, and Boo sat on Max's chair down by the entrance to the cube.

Max said, "Hello."

"So, what the fuck, dude," Boo said. "You're a murderer? You killed a cop?"

Max shrugged. "Well, a helluva lot more went into it than they said on the show. Me and Ryan really went at it all through growing up. He would shoot me, I'd shoot him back. I would set his truck on fire, he would set me on fire. Lots of stuff like that. As we got bigger, stuff got more dangerous. Of course, my brothers hated me as well, so they all sort of helped. Then there was the rally. I mucked up their big rally when I cut the brake lines on all their trucks while they were meeting. And I might have made their bonfire explode or something So they arrested me."

Boo looked at him as if she expected more to the story. "Okay, and?"

"So, they put me in a closet. Kept me there for six months, more or less. I got out one day. Ryan was the only deputy there at the time, and he tried to put me back in that closet. So I ripped his skull apart with my bare hands."

Mercy pulled a face. "Shit, man. Just like that, you just broke his head open?"

"Ayuh. Smashed him on the ground a few times and then his head got a little gooey and I put my fingers in his eye sockets-"

"Whoa!" Mercy and Boo both yelled as they waved their hands.

"Don't need those details," Mercy said. "That's too much."

"So, he's dead now. Them other deputies were not happy when they came back."

They continued to talk about the show for a while, until Boo had to go check on a project for Red. Max was intrigued that so many people were essentially on Red's payroll.

To distract himself, Max started a set of burpees. He stopped at 4pm count, and Nicky struck up a conversation with him as they stood outside their respective cubes.

“How’s it going man?”

“A lot better.”

They went into his cube so Max could put on a shirt before going to dinner. “Listen, Max,” Nicky said as she leaned on the wall, “I’m sorry. I wish I had been able to help with, you know. Before it happened.”

Max turned and smiled at her. “It’s okay. Life happens.”

“How are things with you and Red?”

“She apologized, so we’re cool.”

Nicky looked at the young man. She thought about what she had seen the night before, all the pain he had endured and the horrible treatment from his family. “And that’s it? You’re just okay now? Because she apologized?”

“Oh, well, yeah. And she hugged me. I don’t remember anyone ever hugging me before. That was nice.”

“So, an apology and a hug makes up for you almost dying?” Nicky wasn’t sure she could comprehend that level of forgiveness. Lorna had taken her toast that morning and Nicky still felt bitter.

“She told me she would be nicer to me, and she asked me to trust her. I’m goin to be here a long time, it’d be nice to not be on my own.”

They walked to the cafeteria together. Nicky shoved his arm and jerked her head toward the kitchen. He saw Red standing there with her arms crossed. She stared at him and then turned back into the kitchen.

“She wants you to follow her,” Nicky adviser.

Max walked to the kitchen, right by the guard that should have stopped him, and found Red by the dry food storage. When he approached her, she pulled him into a hug. “Oh!” he said. “What is this for?” Red was warm and he wrapped his arms under hers. He sighed and relaxed against her.

She released him and looked up at his eyes. “You looked like you needed it. I have a tray made for you.”

Max smiled and said, “You’re worried about me.”

She pushed him out of the storage and gave him a warning slap to his backside. “Go eat your food.”

Red kept adding food to Max’s tray throughout the dinner service. Toward the end of the meal, she sat beside him with her own tray and a cup of coffee. “You’ve eaten quite a bit today, Max. I’m proud of you.” Max’s back straightened and he smiled. “How do you feel?”

“Hungry. I haven’t been this hungry in a long time. I think it also has to do with just moving around more, maybe. And it helps the food is real good. Not like what they gave me before here. Thanks for giving me food.”

As a mother, Red felt a sharp stab of sadness when she thought about how appreciative Max sounded about someone giving him food. “Of course, Max. Healy signed off on you receiving as much food as you can eat. I’m going to feed you until you weigh more than a car.”

She bumped shoulders with him and smiled. He looked overwhelmed and blinked several times. “Cars are real heavy,” he said worriedly.

Red laughed and said, “Oh honey.”

He waited for her until the kitchen was cleaned and closed up for the night, and they walked back to their cube together. Max laid on his bunk and tried to scratch under his cast.

“Knock it off,” Red said as she opened her locker.

"Sorry, ma'am."

Gina came into their cube and looked at Max. “Hey. I’m sorry.” Gina gave a sharp nod and left the cube. Max looked to Red, who sighed.

Closing the locker again, Red sat beside Max and put a hand on his chest. “I had Gina push you into the closet that day, Max. She’s felt badly about it since.” Red looked at him and continued, “It was a horrible, horrible thing that I did to you. I don’t know how much you remember about when you came back to the cube that day.”

Something in his demeanor changed. He shrank back from her and said, “You called me useless. A lot.”

That gnawing feeling of guilt turned into a burning sensation in her chest. “I did. I was very angry and wanted you to feel some of the hurt that I felt. I’m sorry, Max. You’re not useless.”

A hand covered hers on his chest. “It’s okay, ma’am.”

“It’s not okay, Max. I can’t believe I hurt you so badly, and then seeing the video last night-” She drew in a breath and looked away from him. The boy squeezed her hand. “They were so horrible to you. They hurt you so badly. And I did the same.”

“No, ma’am. You hurt me, but not like they did. And you’ve been so nice to me. I can tell you feel bad. They never felt bad for anything they did. That’s different.” Red couldn’t fathom the level of depravity his family must have displayed if feeding him and not actively hitting him were considered so nice.

Red realized that Max was desperate for someone he could trust, someone that would take care of him. He was willing to overlook her attack on him in exchange for that.

She continued to rub his chest. “Before I hurt you, I told you that you’re one of mine. Then I betrayed that and hurt you. I promise you, Max, that’s not how I treat my family. You’re my family now, so I’m going to take care of you. I promise you, honey.”

His smile lit up his face.

*****

Interlude

Piper Chapman sat at her kitchen table with Larry and Howard Bloom. Larry was her boyfriend, whom she adored and cherished. Howard was his father, and her lawyer. He tolerated her.

After Piper's indictment for conspiracy charges related to a heroin ring she had run with 10 years prior, Larry had stuck by her and committed to getting through everything with her. Howard had offered his services as her lawyer purely out of love for his only son.

They went over the charges, the indictment, and her plea. Howard let her know that if she went to trial, she could get 10 years. With a plea, she would be looking at fewer than 30 months. They were banking on her career, education, and looks to sway the courts to go easy on her.

Piper nervously bounced her leg and looked over her plea one more time. Larry put his hand over hers and said, "Hey. Everything is going to work out. And in a few years, we're going to have the best stories to tell at dinner parties."

"Larry."

"Sorry."

Howard began collecting the papers to put in his briefcase. "End of the day, Piper, you're going to do prison time. What you'll want to do now is determine what that is going to look like for you. Sentenced in Federal Court in New York City, you will probably go to Litchfield, upstate. Now would be a good time to research and figure out how to make the most of your time."

Later that night on the couch with Larry, Piper sat with her tablet and went through information on incarceration. When she looked up Litchfield itself, the first thing that popped up was an article on someone that had been sentenced there a few months prior: "Mad Max" Rogers.

Larry read over her shoulder and said, "Holy shit. This story is wild. Look at that guy. He's in a women's prison? For twenty-five years? Whoa. Oh my God, they did a Dateline on him. Do you want to watch that?"

At the end of the special, Larry and Piper stared at each other. "Fuck," Piper said. "Did you see that? How are his parents not in jail? How am I going to prison and they're not? What the hell? Where is the justice?"

Larry took the tablet out of her hands and set it on the coffee table. "If you're going to be in prison with people like that guy, you definitely need to prepare. We're going to get you through this."

He pulled her to his side to hug her. She pressed her head into his shoulder. "This prison does not seem good."

"It's not ideal, no."


	7. The Rule

Red stood up from Max’s bunk before she got overwhelmed. “I have something for you. Two things, actually. I was going to give them to you last night, but we got distracted.”

Max felt that distracted was an interesting word for what had happened the night before. He sat up and put his back against the wall, and pulled his knees to his chest.

She returned from her locker with a box and an envelope. She handed him the envelope as she sat next to him. “This is from the Warden. He brought it the other day when you were sleeping off your painkillers.”

Max opened the envelope and pulled out a letter, he read it and furrowed his brow. He handed the letter to Red.

_Mr. Rogers,_

_I have closely watched your case for many years. My son follows your YouTube channel and loves your music. It’s a little too country for me, but you’re incredibly talented. I look forward to following your progress going forward. I have requested that the US DA keep me updated on your current case as it makes its way to trial._

_In addition, I have explained to the Officers that you are to be provided with every comfort during your stay at Litchfield. If you have any concerns, please contact me directly at 555-1012._

_Warden Joe Young_

Red finished reading and looked at Max over her glasses. “Do you know what this is?”

“It’s a letter.”

She laughed and put an arm around his shoulders, leaned close and whispered, “This is a golden ticket, Max. The Warden is behind you.”

“Oh. Well, I suppose he seems like a nice guy.”

“You’re not one to take advantage of a situation, are you?” He shook his head. “Oh, honey, you have so much to learn.” The boy tilted his head but didn’t say anything. “I also got you this.”

She handed him a box, which he opened with hesitation. Inside, he found a supply of toothpaste, soap, shampoo, shaving cream, a razor, and antiperspirant. “What’s this?” he asked.

“This is me, taking care of you,” Red answered. “I should have been helping you from the beginning. Instead, I was petty. And that’s bullshit. So I got you some things you need.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Max said. “That’s really nice of you.”

Red kissed the side of his head. “You’re welcome, honey. I’m here for you.” She squeezed him and said, “Listen. Some of the other women are concerned about being around you. They think you’re dangerous.”

“I mean, I sort of am,” Max conceded.

She leaned closer to him and said, “Perhaps. But you would not hurt anyone here- without my permission, would you?”

He shook his head and hunched his shoulders. “No ma’am.”

“Good boy. Regardless, I want you to stick close to me. You’ll come to the kitchen with me in the morning until lunch, and then you’ll spend time with the family until I finish in the kitchen.”

“I don’t need-”

“I am not making a suggestion. I don’t want you to be alone and vulnerable.”

“Ma’am, I’m-”

“Argue with me one more time.” Max buried his face against her side and shook his head. “That’s what I thought, little boy. When I tell you that you’ll do something, you’re going to do it. I am not accustomed to being disobeyed. I will take care of you, help you, and guide you. But I will also correct you if you step out of line. Do you understand that?”

“Yes ma’am.”

She squeezed him and ran a hand through his hair. “Good boy. You’re smart.” She could feel Max yawn, and she chuckled. “And you’re tired. Lay down, honey.” He stretched out and rested his head on her lap. She stroked his hair and grinned when he smiled. “You have another trial coming up?”

“Yeah. They’re going to kill me.”

Red felt her stomach drop. "You were only 17," she said. "Isn't that important?"

"In Mississippi, anyone over 16 can be sentenced to death. That's why the local DA kept the murder charge even when they handed over the rest of the case to the Feds."

Red's indignation bloomed deep in her chest. "That's not right. You were 17, and they kept you locked in a closet. Surely you can't be blamed for what happened. No jury could convict under the circumstances. It's bullshit."

Max's chuckle lasted only a moment before he said, "Ma'am, this jury is going to be made up of all folks from Rogersville County, and my family gets what it wants down there. They fought giving up their slaves for years after the civil war, and they still ain't desegregated. Hardheaded and ruthless, it's in the genes. They'll convict me, easy."

She took his arm in hers and looked at the scars and tattoos she found there. There was a scab around his wrist, over what appeared to be a scar. She checked his other wrist and found the same scar. “What are these?”

“They kept me in shackles for six months.”

Feeling silly for overlooking that, Red squeezed his arms. “Do you want to talk about that?”

Max tensed and then intentionally relaxed. “I can answer any questions you have, but I don’t like to just sit around and complain.”

Red felt honored that he would give her even that. Vasily has never been afraid to sit with her and tell her all his problems, but Yuri played it much closer to the chest and rarely confided in her. Max wanted to tell her about it, but probably felt like talking would be too much like whining.

She thought about what to ask for a while. Nicky walked by and peered into the cube before she continued on to her own. More and more people returned to their cubes to end their evenings. The noise level in the dorm rose, which provided even more cover for their quiet conversation.

“When did it start?” Red finally asked.

Max rolled to a more comfortable position and thought. “My earliest memory is mama slapping me because I wouldn’t wear a dress to church. So probably three? Earlier?”

“I have to be honest, Max, I don’t know what I would have done if one of my boys went through this,” Red admitted. “It seems very hard, for the child and the parent. I like to think I wouldn’t have fucking beaten them half to death, though. That’s not what mothers are for.”

“What are mothers for?” Max asked.

“Protecting. Teaching. Caring. Nurturing. Protecting.”

“I don’t think I had a great mother.”

Red involuntarily made a hissing sound. “No, you did not.” She calmed herself and rubbed his forehead. “Why did you stay?”

Max laughed. “Everybody asks that. I traveled all over and people always ask why I would go back. And that would be because I didn’t really have a place I could go besides, ma’am. Plus, where else could I smoke and drink and drive like I wanted? I went to California once, they stopped me at the border because of my guns. I had to sneak guns into the state. Ridiculous. Plus, I had a vendetta.”

Red pinched his ear. “And now you’re in prison, silly boy.” He smiled at her and she continued, “I hope you know that nobody should ever have hurt you like that, Max. It was wrong, and I would like to kill the bastards.”

The boy pressed his cheek into her thigh. “That’s very sweet, ma’am.” He let out a small sound when Red stroked his face.

“I’m making a rule, honey. You can only say ma’am once every fifteen minutes. Any more than that and I’ll smack you for each one.”

When his eyes widened and then squeezed shut, Red smirked. “Oh boy, this is not going to go good for me, ma’am.” Red gave his backside a sharp slap. He jerked and said, “Ow, sorry, ma’am.” She gave him another smack. “Ow! I’m not talking no more.”

He melted into a puddle when she rubbed the sore spot she had made. Red smiled when she saw a small grin creep across Max's face.

An argument over a bag of chips broke out a few cubes away. Red listened to make sure her girls weren’t involved, then returned her attention to Max. His eyes were closed and his face looked soft and relaxed, like a small child. If it weren’t for the hair on his face, Red would have thought he was much younger than eighteen.

“Do you have a happy memory you can tell me? Anything?”

Max thought for a few moments. “I have some memories that are less miserable, and I have some memories of drunken shenanigans.” He wanted to tell her something, so he thought again. With his eyebrows drawn together, he said, “I ran off one day. I went to a lonely part of the lake and I caught fish with my hands all day. It was nice.”

So, his happiest memory was him spending the day alone and probably ended with a rather severe punishment. Red didn’t say anything about that as she continued to stroke his hair. “That’s nice, Max. It sounds fun.”

The count light turned on, and Max groaned as he had to sit up. He and Red stood outside their cube and waited for the COs to count. Nicky started a conversation with Red over Mercy’s head.

“Hey ma, settle an argument. Is Max cute like a puppy, or hot like Chris Evans, or scary like Hannibal Lecter?”

Red turned her face to Nicky as most of the rest of the dorm laughed. Her pulse quickened as she looked at her daughter. There was no clue on her face as to why she asked such a question. If her intention was to hurt Max, she would hear from Red. That was unlike Nicky, though. Her girl could be brash and insensitive, but rarely tried to hurt people.

“Nicky.”

The girl dropped her eyes and went into her cube the second that the COs excused them. Red turned to enter her own cube, and Max stood aside to let her go first. He laid on his bunk on his back.

“I’m sorry, Max.”

He bent his neck and looked at her. “It’s okay, ma’am.” She approached his bunk and he shrank away. “It’s been 15 minutes!”

Red sat by his side and smiled down at him. He smiled back at her. She loved that expression on his face. Even the scar under his eye faded a little, and he looked genuinely happy. She put a hand on his face and ran her thumb over the scar.

“Honey, what’s this from?”

“One of my brothers shot me in the face with a .22 after they hung me from a tree. I was maybe eleven."

That had not been what she expected. Of course, with Max, she would have to learn that it would never be what she expected. Her thumb continued rubbing the scar as she watched him. His eyes closed and he leaned into her hand. “I’m sorry, love.”

He snuggled closer to her. She realized how young he was when he pushed his face into her leg and did his best to hug her from his odd angle. He was 18 years old, and he had known almost nothing but suffering and misery. He’d never had the chance to just be a normal little boy, to run around and be happy, to be held and cuddled and comforted.

“Move over, Max.” When he slid closer to the wall, she turned around on the bed and laid beside him. He watched her until she opened her arms, and he flung himself closer to her. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight to her chest. “Go to sleep, honey.”

She laid awake as he relaxed and finally fell asleep. She kissed the top of his head. “Good boy.” Norma walked up to the cube and tilted her head at Red. “We’re fine, Norma. Good night.” Norma smiled and waved before she walked away. Then Gina stepped in and waved goodnight to Red, who returned the wave.

Red remained awake for some time, just listening to Max breathe.


	8. Thanksgiving

The following weeks proceeded similarly. Max spent most of his time in the kitchen with Red, who was protective of him. Gloria brought him tea every morning for three weeks, which roused Red’s suspicion, but Max seemed content so she let it go. The other women of the prison gradually moved on to other topics besides his crime.

Red appreciated her routine. So when she returned to her cube at the end of a long day and found it not only a mess, but lacking Max as well, she felt entirely uncomfortable, which made her angry.

Max’s bed was unmade, and papers littered the top of his locker, which was open. His towel was on the floor under the hooks. Red did not know what made her more upset. She sat at her locker to begin removing her makeup. Not only had nothing gone right in the kitchen all day, Max hadn’t even bothered to do the one thing he had to do. He didn’t have a job, so Red could not imagine he had been too busy.

Max turned up as Red worked on her latest letter to her youngest son. Vasily was only 23, he had been so young when Red went to prison. She could not believe he was a grown man with a girlfriend and a steady job.

When Max walked in, Red stood from her chair and approached him. He took a step back until Red grabbed his collar and yanked him forward.

“What the fuck is this?” she demanded as she pointed to the mess. “Because this looks like laziness to me.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I’ll clean this.”

She let go of his shirt and stepped back. He started cleaning the cube without so much as glancing at her. Red sat back at her locker and watched him. He had gained weight since he had begun eating. He still was not nearly as big as Red would like to see, but he had improved.

He finished with his bed and then turned back to her and stared at the ground. Red stood and walked toward him. He took half a step back and hunched his shoulders. Red reached toward him and patted his arm and pointed to her bunk. “Sit.”

Max sat on the edge of the bunk. He kept his eyes on the ground as she sat next to him. “I don’t think keeping the cube clean is asking too much, is it?”

“No.”

She reached out to brush a hand across his cheek, but he flinched and withdrew from her. “Max, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m upset you left the cube a mess, but I just want to talk to you.” Max nodded and let her stroke his cheek. “Cleanliness is very important to me, kid. If I see this cube a mess like that again, there will be consequences.”

Max looked at her in alarm. “What?”

“Next time this happens, you’re going to spend an entire Saturday cleaning this cube.” She brushed the hair away from his forehead. “But I don’t think that will have to happen, because I think you’re going to be very good about cleaning.”

He nodded and turned his head away from her. Red rested her hand on his leg. “Look at me.” When he met her eyes, Red squeezed his leg. “I take care of you, you do what I say. This is very easy. Can you do that, Max?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then that is that. Do you want to sit here with me?”

“Yes, please.”

“Get comfortable, at least. You look like you’re sitting on a pinecone.”

Max relaxed back against the wall and twisted his hands on his lap. Red relaxed as well and put an arm around his shoulders. She pulled him closer and kissed the side of his head. Having a boy around was an interesting experience for Red. In her years in prison, she had been surrounded by women. The only men around her had been COs, who hardly qualified as human to Red.

More than anyone, Max gave her a sense of normalcy. She enjoyed having a boy around to care for, just as she had with her boys. He laid his head against her and sighed. Red rested her cheek on top of his head and squeezed him.

~X~

Max’s fourth month in the prison was Thanksgiving. Red woke up extra early and dragged Max to the kitchen and sat him on a stack of banana boxes so she could get to work. After a few minutes, her coffee finished and she shoved a mug at Max while she drank her own.

“Oh, my god,” he said as he stared at the drink with bleary eyes right before he looked up at Red. “I would kill for you.”

She rolled her eyes and went back to preparing the meals for the day. “What is your favorite Thanksgiving food, boy?”

After a moment’s consideration, Max answered, “Mashed potatoes. With gravy. And butter.”

“You’re in luck,” she said. “Only three times a year I get to make real mashed potatoes and gravy, and today is one of those.”

He smiled widely and continued drinking his coffee.

Claudette, Norma, and Gina all arrived earlier than normal as well. Claudette began on the mini pumpkin pies while Gina started cutting potatoes. Norma pulled the rest of the breakfast items together.

Max’s favorite part of being in the kitchen was that the ladies had grown fond of feeding him. Throughout the morning, they walked by and handed him toast, fruit, bacon, and biscuits. Red finally stood in front of him with her hands on her hips, sporting a stern but loving expression she reserved for Max.

“You’re going to spoil your dinner.”

“I haven’t even eaten breakfast yet, ma’am,” Max said with wide, innocent eyes.

She harrumphed and walked back to the stoves. Norma brought him a tray of breakfast. “Wow, thanks, Norma!”

His unabashed appreciation anytime someone handed him food had a lot to do with their love of feeding him.

He had gained considerable weight in the months since his head injury, and mostly in muscle due to his continued cube workouts. His chest had broadened and his arms grew exponentially. The women stared at him when he wore a tank top, and more than a few had tried to look into his showers.

Red had begun standing in front of his shower stall for him, and he returned the favor. Red scolded anyone that commented on Max’s appearance because it made her uncomfortable.

Red received permission to host Thanksgiving dinner in the rec room for her family. Excitement compelled her to make sure every detail was perfect. She enlisted Nicky and Lorna to set up the table after lunch. Nicky waved an arm in Max’s direction. “What does he have to do?”

“He has to sit there and stay out of trouble. And taste the gravy every 15 minutes.” Red glared at Max and he dropped his head to stare at the ground.

Nicky said, “Wait a second. Hold on. Is Max grounded? Because I’ve missed out on a lot of good teasing if he is.”

“No. He is prone to outbursts of stupidity, so he’s sitting there until I think he won’t get himself thrown in SHU the moment he leaves my sight.”

“So,” Nicky said with a distinct smirk, “he’s grounded. The last few months make a lot more sense now.”

“Nicky.”

“I’m going, I’m going. Have fun in time out, Max!” Nicky’s laugh echoed through the kitchen as she left.

Max’s eyebrows drew together and his lips parted slightly as he stared at the ground, and Red knew that face on a boy. His brain was asking him why he continued to listen to Red when he could, in fact, leave to do whatever he wanted. She watched the conversation on his face as he thought about whether he should continue to obey her, or if he should just leave. The boy was incredibly expressive when he did not know anyone was looking.

While she wanted to give the boy incentive to continue obeying her, she was curious about what he would come up with on his own.

After almost a minute, Max gave a final nod and then shifted to a more comfortable position to continue sitting. Red smiled while she turned back to her gravy. The pride that filled her at Max’s decision mingled with her excitement about the day to create a bubble of happiness in her chest.

“Max, come over here.” The boy materialized at her side in an instant, and she rewarded him with a spoonful of gravy. “Well?”

“How do you do that?” he asked. His eyes met hers and she couldn’t help but return his smile.

“It’s a secret. How is it?”

“It’s literally the best gravy I've ever had.”

Before Red could even register the compliment, Black Cindy walked into the kitchen and said, “Yeah, ain’t like they got great food in the trailer park of Bumfukistan, Mississippi.”

Red’s ire rose immediately. Thanksgiving was not a great day to piss off the chef.

Max only laughed though. “What on earth makes you think I lived in a trailer park?”

Cindy looked him up and down with a look that said, “I know white trash when I see it.”

“Excuse me, we're rednecks, not white trash,” Max said. Red’s eyebrows rose as she looked at him. “The Rogers Family Trust owns the trailer park.”

The large woman cocked her head to the side. “Then why you such a piece of shit.”

“Please, the poor ain’t got a trademark on assholery.”

Gina tried and failed to stifle a laugh from across the kitchen.

“Whatever, Cotton McWhitey,” Cindy said as she turned to Red. “You makin yams this year?”

Red looked at her in disbelief. “You come into my kitchen, insult my boy, and then you ask if I’m making yams? Get out.” Cindy muttered under her breath as she left. Red turned to Max and continued stirring the gravy. “Your family has money?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“That can make your trial hard.”

“I’m working on that, mmm-” Max snapped his mouth shut after he stifled his last word.

She smirked at him as he went back to his pile of boxes in a hurry.

****

Thanksgiving dinner was a delightful affair for Red. She sat at the head of the table, which was made up of many tables pushed together. Max sat to her right and Nicky to her left. The rest of the family gathered with them. Lorna insisted that they each announced something they were thankful for.

“You go first, Red,” Lorna said.

Red rolled her eyes but said, “I’m thankful for each of you, every day. I’m thankful that I get to share this meal with you. And I’m thankful to each of you that helped prepare today, but not Max because all he did was sit around and eat.”

Max’s jaw dropped as the rest of the family laughed. She squeezed his hand as she chuckled. He glared and shook his head, but she knew it was playful because he did not attempt to take his hand back from her.

Nicky went next. “I’m thankful for Lorna’s tits, Red’s cooking, and for family that shows up.”

Through a blush, Lorna said, “I’m thankful for the wonderful dinner we have, for good family, for Christopher, and for everything Red does for us.”

The people around the table made a collective _awwww_ sound, except for Red, who merely nodded stoically. On the inside, she felt like she might explode from happiness.

Boo’s thanks were graphic and appalling, as they always were. Sister Ingalls said a quick prayer and thanked her Lord for friends, family, food, and the prison community. Yoga Jones was thankful for the few months of relative peace in the prison, and for the group that had accepted her as one of their own. Mercy was thankful for the food. Anita thanked Red for inviting her and mentioned she was thankful for her visit that day.

All eyes turned to Max, who had spent the entire time trying to think of what to say. “Well, I’m certainly thankful for the dinner. I get to see all the work that goes into preparing each meal, from Red, Gina, Norma, and everyone else. It’s pretty awesome. And, after spending so much time with all of you, for the first time in my life I’m actually thankful to be alive. You’re the first people I’ve spent considerable time with that have made me feel like a human being. So, thank you.”

The family was silent for a few moments, until Red said, “Fuck. Now I feel like an asshole.”

Max laughed and stood up just enough to kiss her cheek, which made her smile. The family all started talking and serving themselves as Max sat down again. Red took a moment to observe the boy beside her. He joked with Yoga Jones that he couldn’t do yoga because he was too redneck.

Red watched his face throughout dinner. Even when they weren’t speaking, his eyes darted to her every so often. Whether it was him checking she was okay, or him reassuring himself that she was not mad, Red could not tell. With Max, it could easily go either way.

Boo raised her voice a little and said, “Max, I gotta question for you.” Red had no idea why she stiffened, but she felt unease spread throughout her body. “How did you end up in Federal minimum security after you turned a guy’s head into pudding? Murder isn’t a federal crime.”

Max straightened his back. Talk in the group quieted down as they waited for Max’s response.

“I haven’t gone to trial for murder yet. They RICOd me,” he said. “They got me on conspiracy. The judge literally used the term _one-man Mississippi mafia_. So, they made a federal case out of it.”

Nicky raised her eyebrows and stared at Max in alarm. “So, by 17, you were basically the southern Al Capone.”

He tilted his head. “Who is that?”

The women at the table laughed, except for Red. She did not know that she and Max had been charged under similar laws. He was an interesting cookie.

Yoga Jones finished laughing first and answered, “He was a mobster a long time ago, and he was a pretty rough dude.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Max said as he sent a cold look to Nicky. “Not sure how they do it in New York City, but that didn’t come up in any of my textbooks.”

Nicky snorted. “Maybe it’s 10th-grade material.”

The world around them seemed to come to a screeching halt. Red felt her blood boil, but she did her best to remain calm. Most of the attendees had wide eyes and slack jaws as they stared between Max and Nicky.

The silence lasted for only a few moments before Max said, “Perhaps.” He looked down the table to Sister Ingalls. “Sister, what is your favorite version of the Bible?”

Conversations resumed, and Red felt a swell of pride that Max had not lost his temper as she almost had. She gave Nicky a significant look, and the young woman ducked her head before she started speaking to Lorna.

Once the food was eaten and the conversations tapered off, Red asked Max to help with the cleanup. Norma and Gina stood to help as well, as they had to clean all the inmate's dishes. The three collected the family's trays as Red escorted Nicky into her office and the rest dispersed to the dorm.

Red sat in her chair and looked up at her daughter. “What the fuck was that?”

“I don’t know,” Nicky said. She leaned against the wall, crossed her arms, and would not look at Red. “I’m sorry. I got jealous or something.”

“Jealous? Of what?”

“Max. You spend a lot of time with him, and I, I dunno, I saw how you looked at him at dinner and I snapped.”

“How did I look at him?” Red asked.

“Like you would fight a bear for him.”

Red couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of her. “Nicky, I love you, sweet girl, but you’re too much sometimes. I’m not sure which part of my relationship to Max you’re most jealous of; the fact that I make him sit on a box half the day, the fact that I smack him if he says ma’am too often, the fact that I make him do my laundry, or the fact that I make him clean my bunk every day. Which is it, dear, because I’m sure I can accommodate you.”

“Yeesh, no thanks,” Nicky said with her hands raised in front of her chest. “That sounds like it would cut into my fucking Lorna time.”

“You will apologize to Max,” Red ordered. “You hurt him and that’s very disappointing. In the future, if you have concerns, talk to me. Don’t bullshit with Max’s feelings.”

“Okay. I’m sorry,” Nicky repeated. “I’ll talk to him tonight.”

“Good girl.”

****

Nicky found Max on his bunk later than evening. She plopped down next to him and said, “Listen, buddy, I’m sorry about what I said earlier. It was- ooph.”

Max sat up and wrapped her in a tight hug. Nicky had never experienced a hug that made her think of a bear, but Max’s embrace was so big and tight that she finally understood the term.

She cleared her throat when he loosened his grip. “So, are we okay?”

“Of course,” he said with a smile. “We’re family, right?”

She smiled back at him and said, “Yeah. We are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is a little weird, I didn't edit as much as I usually would. I've had a cough and fever for the last two days. Feel free to let me know your thoughts. (December update to this note: I had Covid. What a wild ride.)


	9. Fever

After finally getting the kitchen cleaned and organized, Red retired to her bunk. Max was half asleep when she entered and started pulling off her kitchen clothes. As fast as possible, she dressed in her sweats and laid on her bunk. 

The day began to catch up with her as she stared at the ceiling. It was the first Thanksgiving of her sentence that not one of her sons visited. It was the first holiday where she’d had no visitors at all, in fact. 

She tried to steady her breathing as she thought of her recent divorce, the fact that her babies had taken their father’s side, even though he had slept with another woman while still married to her.

 _What do you_ _expect, ma? You’re in prison._

It was so kind of her Vasily to remind her of her own reality that she faced each and every day.

Tears fought past her valiant attempt to withhold them. She thought of the nice things her girls had said about her. In such a short year, they had gone from being her prison family to essentially being her only family.

She sniffled and rubbed her nose as she tried to remain as quiet as possible.

In an instant, Max was beside her. She scooted closer to the wall and he laid down next to her. He was still close to sleep, as his eyes barely opened as he wrapped his arms around her to pull her to his chest. “Shh, it’s okay,” he whispered. “I got you.”

For over an hour, she cried as silently as possible into his chest as he occasionally offered her sleepy reassurances that everything would be okay.

****

Red woke up in Max’s arms and decided to cherish the few moments she had before he woke too. His chin rested on top of her head, and she enjoyed his warmth and the feeling of security she felt from him. 

The moment Max awoke, he tightened his hold on her. She whispered, “Good morning, Max.”

“M’morn’n.” 

She chuckled and said, “I don’t go into the kitchen today, honey. What would you like to do?”

“Shh. Snuggle.”

After no struggle whatsoever, Red allowed herself to be held until other women in the dorm started waking. 

“Time to get up, Max,” Red said. “Come on.”

He sat up with the most disgruntled look she had ever seen. He mumbled something and started pulling on clothing. Red dressed as well and then took his shoulders in a firm grip.

“Max, wake up. Comb your hair. Turn your shirt right side out. We’ll go get coffee when you’re ready.”

It never failed that the mention of coffee would perk Max up. He did as she said and then smiled at her when he was ready to go.

The two went to breakfast together, collected trays and coffee, and sat at an empty table. “You don’t look well, Max,” Red said as she checked the eggs. “How do you feel?”

“I’m fine.”

Retrospectively, it was a silly question. She reached across the table and felt his forehead. “You have a fever, silly boy. You don’t feel fine. You’re going to spend the day in bed.”

Max’s eyes went from bleary to puppy in a blink. “But, ma’am-”

“Oh no. You’re not about to _argue_ , are you?” 

One of her few true pleasures in life was watching the conflict on Max’s face when what he wanted conflicted with what she told him to do. “No, I would like to respectfully say that I don’t need to be in bed all day.”

Red arranged her features into a stern look that usually worked to make her kids cower and repent. “So you’re not arguing? Just _disagreeing_ with me?” 

Big eyes met hers, and she relented. Red stood up and walked to the kitchen to retrieve tea for Max. As she set the mug in front of him, the rest of her family arrived at the table. None of them looked well. Nicky had dark circles around her eyes, Boo had an obvious fever, and Lorna looked green.

Red sighed. She knew she would be spending at least the next several days caring for sick children. “All of you are going to bed after breakfast,” she declared. Each except Max looked like they were about to argue until she raised an eyebrow. “I’ll bring you soup for lunch.”

Each conceded quietly. After breakfast, she took them to medical where the nurse shoved something that looked like a pipe cleaner up their noses, gave them each a dose of ibuprofen, and sent them on their way.

****

With each of her sick family members in bed, Red rotated checking on each one. Max stretched out on his bed and started coughing before lunch. Nicky’s cough developed shortly after. The rest followed throughout the day. 

Red went to the kitchen to prepare a soup. Claudette was working on the meatloaf for dinner by the ovens when Red threw the last vegetables into the soup. “I’m going to be occupied for a while,” Red said to the other woman. “I have some sick kids to care for.”

Claudette gave her an amused smirk. “You enjoy this.”

Red shrugged. “A mother cares for her children. It’s our purpose.”

After Red delivered soup to her family, she went to her cube and sat on Max’s bunk. His eyes were obviously heavy and drooping as he tried to coordinate the spoon between the bowl and his mouth. The bowl tilted precariously toward tipping over each time he coughed. 

“Oh, little boy,” Red said. She scooted next to him and put an arm around his shoulders, then took the bowl in one hand and the spoon in the other. 

“I can do it,” he said in a tired voice, but he did nothing otherwise to stop her.

“Let me,” she said softly. She fed him the soup as he leaned more and more heavily on her shoulder. When the soup was gone, Red stretched to place the bowl and spoon on his locker. “Go to sleep, honey. You look exhausted.”

It took less than five minutes for the boy to fall asleep against her. She held him for a few more minutes after and then stood to readjust him on the bed to a more comfortable position. She kissed his forehead then moved on to check on Gina, who had been kicked out of the kitchen because of her cough. 

Gina was sleeping when Red entered her cube. She took a moment to tuck the blanket around the women and then ran a hand through her hair. Boo was knitting on her bunk with a tired look on her face. 

“You okay, Boo?” 

“Great,” Boo said in a muffled tone through her congestion. 

Red nodded and moved on to visit Lorna, and then Nicky.

Nicky was sitting cross-legged on her bunk with her head back against the wall. “How are you, Nicky?” Red asked from the cube entrance. 

“I’m going to kill Max,” Nicky said.

Red raised an eyebrow and entered the cube to sit on Norma’s bunk. “Oh?”

“I blame him for this. I was just fine until he got sick three days ago.”

“Three days?” Red asked. 

“Yeah, he was all crusty eyed and miserable days ago and I didn’t think I would catch it.”

Red crossed her arms. “He didn’t tell me.”

She moved across the cube to sit beside her girl and pull her into her arms. 

Red patted Nicky’s cheek. “How’s that cough syrup working?” she teased. Nicky groaned and tried to push Red away, but the older woman chuckled and bent to kiss her forehead. “I’m going to check on Max, little girl. Let me know if you need anything, honey."

Nicky listened as Red walked away. Not half a moment after the woman’s back disappeared, she heard Red use her sternest, most intimidating voice to say, “ _G_ _et. Back. In. To. That. Bed. Boy."_

Then the unmistakable sound of a very contrite Max rushing to comply.

Red looked down at Max with a fierce expression as he followed her command. She softened when he stared up at her with huge innocent eyes, and she pulled his blanket over him. 

“You are sick and you will not get out of bed until I say you can. You’re lucky I’m forgiving you for hiding this from me,” Red explained quietly as she tucked him in. She pressed a kiss to his forehead, which was very hot. “Oh, baby, you’re burning up.”

Max shook his head. “Nope, _cold_.” He pulled the blanket tighter around himself and shivered for emphasis.

“Maaaaaa,” Nicky called. Red rolled her eyes but there was no malice there. 

“You stay in bed,” she said to the boy that stared at her with a strange look in his eyes. She walked back to Nicky’s bunk to find the girl looking green. 

“Murphy, Nichols, Rogers!” a COs voice boomed. Red popped her head out of the cube and saw Donaldson walking toward her. “Let’s go, to the rooms!”

“Officer,” Red said, “they’re very sick. They can’t-”

“You’re going with them,” Donaldson said. “Up and at em!”

A few other people helped Red get Gina, Nicky, and Max to one of the rooms. Donaldson stayed as far away as possible as he said to Red, “They’re being quarantined, they’re highly infectious, something about multiple strains of flu. You’re staying with them to make sure they don’t die. Mendoza is going to run the kitchen until they’re better. The nurse will be by with supplies.”

With that, Donaldson left her with the three sick people. 

****

Red looked around at her three favorites and smiled softly. Max was huddled on his bunk on the right side, trembling and shivering. Red’s heart broke when she saw him struggle to suppress coughs, and when he did cough, it was a gut-wrenching sound that shook his entire bunk. Gina was across from him to the left, asleep after hours of shaking and moaning. Nicky was curled up against the wall muttering.

Red puttered between the three of them and tended to them as best she could. Even when Red had been free, her three sons had never gotten so sick all at the same time. 

She did her best to keep them all as happy as possible. Max was the hardest to care for since he refused to tell her how he felt, what was wrong, or what he wanted. 

Unsurprisingly, Max was sicker for longer than her girls. He refused all medicine, going so far as to shove a spoonful of cough medicine back at Red, covering her sweatshirt in sticky green syrup. She looked down at the mess and then the side of his sweaty face.

Without a second thought, Red rolled him toward her and smacked his backside several times in quick succession. He whimpered and squirmed, but then allowed her to pour NyQuil down his throat when she rolled him back over. She managed to ignore his hurt puppy eyes long enough to cap the bottle and check on Nicky.

Nicky looked at her through wide, sunken eyes. “Did you just spank him to make him take medicine?”

“I did,” Red said without remorse. 

“The Russian Mary Poppins must be _terrifying_ ,” Nicky said as she watched Red pour the green liquid onto a fresh spoon from her pocket.

The older woman gave her a withering look and said, “Now, be quiet and drink this.” Nicky did not hesitate to take the NyQuil offered to her. “Good girl.” She patted Nicky’s cheek and smiled at her.

She went to Gina to check her fever, which was still high. She gave her some NyQuil as well and kissed her cheek. “Go to sleep, Gina. You’ll feel better when you wake up.”

“Thanks, Red,” Gina whispered. 

Red went back to Max’s side and sat on his bunk. He was in a fetal position faced away from her. She ran a hand up his sweaty back and said, “Is someone feeling a little more docile now? Hmm? Going to let me take care of you?” He nodded miserably. “Good boy.” She stroked his hair and smiled. “I just want to take care of you, there’s no reason to have tantrums.” He looked at her with sleepy eyes. “Go to sleep, puppy, you’re safe with me.”

****

Gina was the first to recover and go back to the dorm. That at least lightened Red’s responsibilities considerably. Getting all three of them to the bathroom and back each day had been a monumental task. 

When Red returned from helping Gina back to her bunk, she found Max and Nicky in the middle of the floor, wrestling over a pillow. Red closed the door and said, “What the fuck is this?” 

Both looked at her, and both started talking at the same time. Nicky’s hand was forcefully pushing Max’s face away, and Max had Nicky mostly pinned to the ground. The pillow was between them in danger of tearing in half.

“Shut up,” Red said. Each fell silent immediately. “Back in your bunks, both of you.” Red grabbed the pillow and returned it to Gina’s vacated bunk. She looked between the two as they scrambled back to their beds. They gave her guilty looks. 

“That was _unacceptable._ I am _very_ disappointed in what I just saw. Nicky, you’re supposed to be older and wiser than Max. And _you_ , Max, may _never_ put your hands on a woman like I just saw. I should put you both across my knee for this.” Their eyes got impossibly wide and they cowered as close to the wall as they could get. She softened and said, “I will let this slide this _one time_ because I assume the fever has made you both retarded. But if I see _anything_ like that _ever_ again-” she trailed off and sent them each a stern look.

Red walked over to Max, who did his best to draw in all his limbs and make himself small. Red leaned over the bunk and reached out to Max. As sick and as weak as he was, he resisted her impressively. “Max, I’m not going to hurt you. Stop being difficult.” The young man looked at her through distrustful eyes, but he unclenched his muscles. She pulled him to the center of the bunk and draped his blanket over him. She bent forward and kissed his forehead, and smiled when he relaxed.

Red then went to Nicky’s bunk and repeated the process with much less difficulty. Nicky wrapped her arms around Red’s neck and said, “I’m sorry, Mommy.”

Red ran her hand through Nicky’s wild hair and said, “Shh, it’s okay, silly girl. All is forgiven.”

Once both of her loves were settled, Red laid down on the empty bunk. “Red?” Nicky called.

“Yes, Nicky?”

“Can you tell us a story?”

Red sighed and stretched her back. “Are you both going to behave yourselves?” They both responded affirmatively and she looked at both of them to confirm their sincerity. Nicky had her hands behind her head to prop her up enough to look at Red. Max was on his side facing her and watching her with his big eyes. “Fine. What story do you want?”

“Anything.”

She told them about her first trip to an American grocery store. Nicky asked questions throughout the story, while Max remained silent and listened. She was aware of his gaze throughout the story. She glanced at him and saw his blanket pulled up to his eyes. Red smiled at him and she could tell he smiled from the way his forehead crinkled.

It was then that Red realized that the two people in the room with her were the most important people, the most _special_ people in her life. She would go to the ends of the Earth for either one of them. She knew they would do the same for her, which made her heart glow with pride.

After five days of quarantine, Nicky left the rooms with one last hug for Red. “Thanks, Ma.”

Red sat on Max’s bunk and looked down at him. “You know, you would probably be better now if you weren’t so stubborn, little boy.” He gave her a betrayed look and his lower lip popped out. “Oh, _that_ won’t work on me, boy.” 

“It’s not nice to be mean to me,” he whined. 

She laughed. “It wasn’t nice to throw cough medicine at me.” 

He whined again and tried to roll away. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop whining,” she said as she delivered a light smack to his backside. Then she rubbed his stomach because she knew all the coughing had left a terrible pain there. “How do you feel?”

Max gave her a confused look. He seemed to be processing how he felt, something she knew he was not good at deciphering. “Fine.”

She laughed. “Oh, honey, _no_. You don’t feel fine. Be honest this time.”

He sighed and said, “Everything hurts, I guess.” 

“That’s better.”

There was not much that Red could do for him, so she sat with him and held him. She told him stories and sang to him in Russian as he coughed and gasped.

Max pressed his face into her sweatshirt and coughed until he almost passed out.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for, honey?” 

He pulled away and looked at her sweatshirt. She looked down and saw blood smeared where he had coughed. “Oh, it’s okay, kid. Don’t worry about it, honey.” She knew that the blood was from his excessive coughing and not something to worry about unless it got much worse. The same thing had happened when Yuri had the flu when he was 10.

Max’s eyes had dark black rings around them. His lips were so dry they had cracked and bled. His hair was limp and damp. 

Red felt such a surge of protective instinct that overwhelmed her for a moment. She pulled him to her chest and inhaled his scent from the top of his head. He mumbled something in her shirt but he was asleep when she asked him to repeat himself. 

She held him and continued to run her hands up and down his arms. 

The nurse popped his head in and said, “How is he?”

“He coughed up blood, he’s miserable, I can’t get him to take fluids, and he still has a fever.”

“Shit. Is he talking okay?”

“I think so.”

Max started coughing again, and his eyes opened to look at Red in misery. The nurse said, “If you get nervous, bring him to medical. He’s got it pretty bad, but you’ll know if it gets to be an emergency.”

The nurse left and Red went back to squeezing Max. 

Max snuggled into the warm woman next to him and sighed. Nobody had ever held him when he had been sick, and he secretly loved it. He didn’t want the moment to end. He wanted to stay with her and her warmth and her soothing words for eternity. 

Red was not a dumb woman. She could tell that Max was soaking up her attention like a very dry sponge doused in water. She felt no hesitation in providing attention to him because it was something she had missed giving. Nicky rarely allowed such uncensored loving, as was the case with most of her daughters. Max was generally a very closed off person, so she cherished the chance to spoil him with affection.

While she enjoyed just holding him, Red couldn’t help her burning curiosity. She decided to take advantage of Max’s fuzzy mind and ask him about himself. “What did your mother do for you when you were sick, little lion?”

“Freaks don’t get help,” he mumbled. Red felt a jolt go through her stomach and she held him tighter.

“So nobody ever made you soup or hugged you or anything?”

Even in his cough syrup induced haze, Max gave her a disbelieving look. “They only ever touched me to hurt me.”

“Oh, honey,” Red said as she pulled him against her chest. “I’m sorry. Sometimes little boys need a firm hand and a good smack, but not as often as they need gentleness and cuddles.” She squeezed him and kissed his cheek. “I promise I’ll always do my best to be fair with you. I _will_ correct you when you misbehave, but I will also provide you with gentleness and cuddles. How does that sound?”

Big eyes looked up at her. They were very conflicted, and he looked like he wanted to believe her so badly. 

Red kissed right between his eyes and said, “How about this? How about you trust me for now and I’ll prove it to you?” 

He smiled at her and cuddled against her. Red thought back to what she had done to Max in the closet four months prior. The look on his face as blood poured out of his nose and forehead was burned into Red’s nightmares. She thought of how unfair, how cruel she had been to him. He had no reason to trust her, but she was gratified that he tried.

Red kissed Max’s forehead again. She smiled and said, “Good boy. Thank you for letting me take care of you.”

He gave an amused huff. “S’been a real sacrifice on my part.”

When Max was ready to return to the cube, she helped him walk back. He was weak and leaned against her heavily all the way there, and she could feel him falling asleep in the last few steps. Of course, it would be her luck that the nurse would clear Max right after she gave him more cough syrup.

Once she got him on his bunk and made him drink water, she went to check on Nicky. “Jesus, ma,” Nicky said as the younger woman looked her over. Red looked down and saw cough syrup, blood, and mucus all over her sweatshirt. There was no way Laundry was going to be able to get all that out, but her shirt was the least of her concerns. She turned her thoughts back to her wildest daughter.

“How are you, Nicky?” 

“Fine, ma. I’m working on a new girl that just arrived, it’s going well. I got some illness sympathy points. How is Max?”

“Much better.”

“Because he finally took the fucking cough syrup.” Nicky chuckled at her own joke while Red smiled.

“He won’t admit it, of course, but I think the coddling helped, as well.” Nicky blushed, probably because she had enjoyed that part, as well. Red smiled. Her kids were so needy, they just refused to admit it.

Red returned to her cube and saw Max asleep, flat on his back with his mouth wide open. She chuckled and covered him with the blanket off her own bunk. He loved her blanket and often curled up on her bunk with it. 

She took off her sweatshirt and saw blood on her tee-shirt as well. She sighed and took that off too and stood in her bra as she searched for a new top. She pulled it on and looked down at Max with a soft smile.

Red went back to check on her family. Gina was in the kitchen and looked much better. Norma welcomed her back with a wide smile and a hand motion that meant she was excited to see the Russian.

Lorna was over her cold and in the rec room reading a magazine. “Hi, Red!” Lorna said as Red sat with her. “How is Max?”

“He’s fine, just sleeping off the last of his NyQuil.”

“Good. And how are you? Are you feeling okay?”

Red was touched, and she took Lorna’s hand in her own. “I am, thank you. Taking care of my family is my favorite thing.” 

Lorna smiled at her and squeezed her hand. “We know. We appreciate you, Red.”

After her visit with Lorna, Red returned to her cube and stretched out on her bunk. Her muscles were tight from bending and stooping so much the previous few days. 

“Red?” 

She turned toward the sound of Max’s low, rough voice. Her concern spiked since he used her name so rarely. He looked at her with drooping, unfocused eyes. “Yes, honey?”

“I love you.”

Her heart stopped and then exploded in happiness. “I love you too, puppy. Go to sleep.”

He said something that could have been, “Yes, ma'am,” and then he fell asleep. Red knew he would not remember the exchange when he woke up, but she would.

For days, Red floated on a cloud of happiness. Her family loved her and appreciated her, and she could not ask for anything more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter well before the current health crisis, after I came down with two strains of the flu last year. It was awful.


	10. SHU

Max sat on the prep table in the kitchen two weeks before Christmas and listened as Red spoke about stock and preparations for Christmas dinner. He snuck another handful of snap peas even as Red walked by and slapped his thigh.

After Max finished the peas, he looked into the cafeteria when a commotion drew his attention.

Anderson manhandled one of the women, Taystee, as the CO threw her against the wall for a random pat down. Max jumped off the table before he realized he’d moved and walked out of the kitchen.

He didn’t hear Red snap his name as he went forward. She yelled for him to come back to the kitchen. Red threw a pan at the wall and said a string of profanity.

Max stared down Anderson as he said, “No the fuck you did not just put your hands on her like that.”

Red walked over to the arch between the kitchen and the cafeteria. Max was halfway across the cafeteria when Bennet tried to reach for him. Max grabbed him by the neck and slammed him to the ground without breaking his stride.

Anderson turned his full attention to Max by shoving Taystee to the floor.

Red put her hands on her hips and watched intently, as she realized that it would be the last time she would ever see Max.

The burly CO took out his taser and aimed at Max. “On the ground, inmate!”

Red watched as Max ignored the order, ignored the taser that shocked him, and went straight for Anderson. Bennet caught his breath and tried to tackle Max from behind.

The resulting fight turned into five guards on top of Max, who somehow seemed to be dishing out more than he took.

Fed up of watching Max struggle, Red barked, “Max, stop!”

He went limp, though the guards continued hitting him for another few moments. They then hauled him up and dragged him from the cafeteria.

Bennet turned to Crazy Eyes and shouted at her to get a mop to clean the mess before he followed the rest. Red walked forward until she stood right where the fight had occurred. There were blood smears all over.

Red collected her thoughts and walked back into the kitchen. She went into the walk in and covered her face with her hands and took deep breaths to avoid tears.

After a few minutes, Gina entered and closed the door. “Red, I’m sorry,” she said. Red turned and pulled Gina into her arms. “He’ll be okay, Red.”

“He’s going to max.” Gina was confused for a moment before she realized Red meant Max would go to Maximum security. “He’s going to be there a very long time.”

Gina squeezed the older woman around the middle. “Yeah, probably.”

****

When Red returned to her bunk, Taystee was waiting for her. The woman leaned on Max’s locker and straightened when Red entered. “Hey,” the younger woman said, “I just wanna say, I know Max went off script back there, but I appreciate him. They was gunna take me to SHU because I tripped into Anderson. I’m sorry it went down this way, but I owe you.”

Red sat on her bunk and looked at Taystee. “I would say so. Don’t think I’ll forget.”

Taystee nodded and left the cube.

Red laid back and sighed as she looked over at Max’s bunk. When she thought about it, she realized his pillow was missing. In less than a moment she sat up and shouted, “Whoever took Max’s pillow can return it right now!”

One alligator. Two alligator. Three-

A pillow flew into the cube from across the room. Red picked it up and put it on top of her own pillow. It smelled distinctly of Max, and she inhaled deeply.

****

Weeks after Max's spectacle in the cafeteria, Red walked into the bathroom with Norma as the two began to prepare for the day. Before Norma could start a shower, they heard a girl in a stall puking. Such an occurrence was not uncommon, but Red dreaded each incident.

Further investigation revealed a young blond girl with wild and dirty hair. Red put her hand on the girl's back and gathered some of her hair out of her face.

"What-"

"Shush. Let it up. It's coming out somehow."

Once the girl had gotten most of everything out, she turned to Red. "Who are you?"

"Red. What were you on?"

"Heroin, mostly."

"I'll make you a deal, kid. I'll help you now, and will continue to help you, if you stay clean. How does that sound?"

"Help me with what?"

"I'm very helpful."

"Are you talking about something weird?"

Red rolled her eyes. "No, girl. Don't be disgusting. I'm talking about helping you get through prison safely. I've got girls here. They're like my family. I take care of them. You can hang out with us. If you're clean."

"Uh. Yeah, yeah, okay."

"Norma, grab her a toothbrush from my spares. Girl, what is your name?"

"Tricia."

"Alright, Tricia. Norma will take you to your bunk and we'll check on you through the day. I'm sure you know this is going to hurt. I'll send Nicky to see you."

In the kitchen, Red made a special breakfast for Tricia and sent it with Norma to the girl's room. The last addict Red had helped through withdrawal had been Nicky. She spotted the older girl in the cafeteria and jerked her head to the kitchen.

Shortly after, as Red directed Kara to take out the trash, Nicky materialized in the doorway. "Hi, Mom."

"Nicky, good. There's a new girl. I want you to meet her in her room, room 6. You're going to look after her. Get her through her illness, and then show her around."

"Illness? Do I look like a nurse?" Red turned on her heel and stared at Nicky. The girl took a step back and held up her hands. "Whoa. Slap a paper hat on me and call me Florence Nightingale. I'll go right now."

"I'll slap something if you're still in this kitchen in three seconds."

Nicky turned tail and left the kitchen as fast as she could without a CO yelling.

Over the next few days, Tricia got better, and she grew close to Nicky and Red. Red snuck her various foods and snacks to help her recover.

Tricia had never experienced someone taking such care of her. By the time her withdrawal ended, Tricia considered herself indebted to Red, and she had every intention of repaying that debt.

~x~

The middle of March was generally a boring time of year in the prison. Smack dab between Valentines and Easter, there was little excitement in the air.

Red finished serving breakfast and returned to her dorm to change her shirt after the ketchup incident. She rounded the corner into the cube and found Max asleep on his bunk.

“What the hell?” she demanded.

Max opened one bleary eye at her, paused for a second, and then jumped up off the bunk. “Ma’am.”

She wrapped her arms around him in an instant and squeezed him so tightly he squeaked. “You are in so much trouble,” she promised. He returned the hug.

“I missed you,” he said.

They hugged for several moments until Red pushed him back down onto his bunk. “Why are you back?”

“The Warden,” Max said. “He said I had to stay in seg long enough to be realistic, and now I’m back.” She grabbed his face and kissed his forehead. “Are you mad at me?”

“So, so mad at you,” she answered while she checked him for injuries. “You’re going to find out this evening. Until then, you’re going to stay on this bunk.”

“All day?”

Red twisted his ear sharply. “Yes. You may use the bathroom, but you will go and come right back. I have food in my locker you may eat. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”

She changed her shirt and turned to leave the cube. “Ma’am?” Red looked back at the boy. He watched her for a moment as she raised an eyebrow. “Nevermind.”

The kitchen was gearing up for lunch when Red entered. There had been little reason for Red to believe Max would return, except that the COs had not cleared his bunk in three months.

She considered how she would handle him that evening. Three months in solitary was fairly harsh, but he was both resilient and hard-headed. Punishing him further seemed cruel to her, but he had royally screwed up and put himself in severe danger. That did not fly with Red.

Hours later, after the kitchen had been cleaned and closed for the night, Red returned to her cube to collect Max. He was sleeping on his bunk, so Red took a moment to watch him breathe.

After the moment, she shook his shoulder and woke him. “Come with me, Max.”

They walked to the cafeteria, and she could feel his nervous energy the whole way. Finally, he said, “Please talk to me, ma’am, you’re scaring me.”

A sharp turn brought her face to chest with him as he almost didn’t stop in time to avoid running her over. Red pushed him back and pointed to the ground beside him. “Am I? Scaring you? More scared than you were when you charged down a CO? More scared than I was when I saw the puddle of blood you left behind?”

He shrank down and wouldn’t meet her eyes while she turned to continue to her office. Once both of them were inside, she sat in her chair and looked up at him. Even though he was fairly tall and broad, he reminded her of a small child caught being naughty.

“You ignored me,” she said. “I told you not to leave the kitchen that day, and what did you do? Well?”

“I left the kitchen,” he said to the floor.

“And then, like a fucking idiot, you chased down a CO and it took five of them to stop you. Are you retarded?”

Max’s throat closed off. “I- I-”

“Shut up.” Red watched him for a few moments before she said, “Drop your pants.” His eyes went impossibly wide and he took a small step back. “Do not make this hard for yourself, Max. You have a choice to make. Do as I say and receive your punishment, or remove yourself from this family.”

His breathing sped up and she could see sweat bead at his hairline. She counted to 30 before she continued, “I will say this one more time. Pull down your pants and then come over here.”

With jerky movements, Max dropped his pants down to his knees and sidled over to her. His face had reddened and he looked like he might pass out. “I’m sure you know how this works, Max. Bend over.” Max made a high pitched sound of distress in his throat as he tried to build up the resolve to obey her.

“Max.”

In a flash, she had a lap full of teenage boy. He shook and she wanted to get the whole thing over with as quickly as possible. CO Donaldson had promised her no more than one hour between rounds in the cafeteria.

Red shifted Max’s weight to her left thigh as she wrapped her right leg over the back of his knees and then said, “Give me your hands.”

With the same reluctance that had punctuated each step of the process, Max put both his hands behind his back. She took his wrists in her left hand and pinned them to his lower back. She could feel the scars from the shackles, and her breath caught. It took her a moment to regain herself.

“Why are you being punished, Max?”

One thing she knew was that people absolutely hated being asked questions during a punishment, but it never failed to make them very remorseful. “I didn’t listen to you and I put myself in danger.”

She used her right hand to gently rub the back of his leg while she spoke. “That’s right. Do you think you deserve to be punished?”

The same distress noise preceded his answer of, “Yes, ma'am.”

“Yes, you do.” She adjusted him to make sure he was properly positioned and wouldn’t fall to the floor. “Now, I want you to think about what you could have done differently. This is going to be painful, Max, but remember, I am only doing this because you need to learn restraint and respect.” Throughout her speech, Max tensed more and more in preparation.

Red found it strange that a kid that had been shot, hanged, whipped, tortured, dragged, chained, and beaten throughout his life was so freaked out by a spanking from a middle-aged woman.

She raised her hand and brought it down on his backside. The thin fabric of his boxers did not offer much protection from the sharp blow. He jumped and let out a strangled squeak. His entire body shuddered and she could feel that he had begun crying by the shaking of his shoulders.

While she wanted to stop immediately, Red knew that would not be best for Max. Again and again, she smacked him. After a few minutes, she said, “Who is in charge here, Max?”

“You, ma’am,” he said through tears.

“Full sentences.”

“You’re in charge, ma’am.”

“Good. And who is supposed to be obedient and respectful and do as I say?”

A sob broke through his otherwise quiet crying. “I’m supposed to be obedient, respectful, and do as you say?”

“That’s right.” She continued smacking. His body jerked around, but Red held him firmly in place. Given his size and muscle mass, he easily could have gotten free of her if he truly tried. After several more smacks, she asked, “Are you allowed to endanger yourself needlessly?”

“No, ma’am, I’m not allowed to endanger myself needlessly.”

“Do you seek my permission before you do something that can get you in trouble?”

“Yes, I seek your permission before I do something that can get me in trouble.” Red listened for the ultra-contrite tone she wanted.

“Good. Because if we have to have this conversation again, your ass will be bare and I’ll use a paddle.”

She finished the spanking with a dozen more smacks, ensuring they were the most painful she could deliver.

When finished, Red let him sit for a moment before she released his hands and legs. “Come here, Max.” He twisted around until he was in her lap with his head on her chest. “Good boy. You did so well. I’m proud of you. Good boy.”

She rubbed his back and hugged him as he calmed down and the tears stopped. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re forgiven, Max. I love you, honey.”

“I love you too, ma’am,” he said as he rubbed his eyes and nose.

Red sat with him for another few minutes, enjoying his vulnerability and sweetness. He was extremely cuddly, which she did not mind. “Okay, honey, we have to go back to the dorm now. Stand up and fix your pants.”

Max squeezed her one more time before he stood and did as she said. She watched him pull up his pants and straighten his shirt. He didn’t meet her eyes, but he stayed as close to her as possible. Once he was fully clothed and ready to go, Red reached up and wiped Max’s face and smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re back. I missed you quite a bit.”

“Had to do your own laundry, eh?” he said. She laughed and tugged his hand back toward her chair.

“I see you’re still feeling an attitude.” His wide eyes made her laugh harder. She led him to the door and then locked up once they were out. “Tell me about SHU.”

“It was nice,” he said.

Max felt her disbelieving eyes and he looked down at her. “Nice?”

“I don’t mind being alone. The COs didn’t, you know, hurt me or anything. They fed me three times a day. It was perfect, ‘cept for you not being around.” She took his hand in hers and squeezed.

They made the rest of the trip to the cube in silence. Red directed Max to the bathroom and indicated to him to wash his face. He did so, and she watched him intently. His arms looked bigger than they had three months prior, leaving Red to wonder how big the boy would get. Already, he was larger than most of the male guards, and she saw how they looked at Max in apprehension. No doubt they had all seen him obliterate a man’s skull with his bare hands.

From the shadows around his eyes and his yawning, Red assumed he was quite tired. Sleep was hard to come by in SHU due to the near-constant screaming.

****

Red jerked awake when a hand touched her shoulder, and her eyes flew open to see Max standing above her shifting nervously from side to side. “What?”

“Can- can I sleep with you?” he whispered.

Without a word, Red slid to the wall and held the blanket up for him. He clambered into the bunk with as much grace as a tranquilized elephant and pressed his back into her abdomen. Generally, when they cuddled, Max would rest his cheek on her chest and wrap his arms around her.

Tonight, he decided on a fetal position faced away from her, which made her think perhaps he was extra sensitive. “Bad dream?” she asked softly. His only reply was a jerky nod. “It’s okay, sweet. You’re safe with me, always. I’ll take care of you.”

He fell asleep in her arms, but Red remained awake for a bit. Memories of her boys sneaking into her bed after nightmares crept into her mind. She pulled Max closer and kissed the back of his head. “Good boy,” she whispered to his sleeping form.

Red held him tightly and smiled when he sighed. She enjoyed the feeling of holding him close.


	11. Bang

Red watched Max closely as she and the girls prepped breakfast. He sat on the handwashing sink with a book she had given him held close to his face. She could see him mouthing the words very slowly with a look of intense concentration, eyebrows drawn together and head bent. The book was _The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck._

As the breakfast service began, Red walked over to him and squeezed his shoulder. “Why don’t you go sit with Nicky, honey? I’ll bring you a tray?”

Max’s face lit up and he hopped off the sink. “Thanks, ma’am!”

He left the kitchen with a smile and his book tucked under his arm.

Max entered the cafeteria, and conversation quieted. He had returned to the dorms early the morning before and stayed in his bunk the entire day, and left the cube with Red very early that morning. Most people in the prison did not know he had returned.

He sat between Nicky and Yoga Jones. Boo yelled, “Holy hell, guys, they killed Max and his ghost is haunting us!”

“Not dead,” Max said. Boo reached across the table and grabbed his face. With his face mooshed together, Max said, “What’re y’doin?”

Boo removed her hand and leaned back. “How the fuck did you come back from fighting COs? Nobody comes back from that.”

Max shrugged. “Things don’t go for me like they go for most people.”

Red put a tray in front of him, and it was piled high with bacon and eggs. She put her hands on his shoulders and squeezed. “If anyone sees him within 10 feet of a CO, tackle him.”

He dropped his head back to look up at her. “Hey.”

She bent down and kissed his forehead. “You’re an idiot.” She returned to the kitchen and he ate his breakfast.

Nicky bit a piece of toast and said, “I dunno about anyone else, but I watched five COs tase and tackle Max, and it didn’t go well for them. Not something I’m willing to try.”

“I could take him,” Lorna said with a nod. She waved a sausage at him and continued, “You’re not so tough.”

Max laughed and said, “I like your confidence.”

****

Max opened his eyes in a panic when he felt someone watching him. Red stood over him and smirked when he sat partway up. “What are you doing, ma’am?”

“You look so cute when you sleep. Like a baby.”

“I’m not sure if that’s sweet or mean,” Max said as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.

“Go with sweet,” she said as she sat at her locker. “You slept through lunch and dinner. No one woke you for the count?”

“No,” he sat up all the way and put his feet on the ground. “I’m sorry.”

“No, honey, you needed the sleep. I knew you were in here.” She smiled at him and then began removing her makeup. “How do you feel?”

“Tired, mostly.”

She looked at him over her shoulder and said, “And how do you feel about last night?”

He looked down at his hands and tilted his head. She gave him time to think while she finished her make-up, sat beside him, and put an arm around his shoulder.

Automatically, Max rested his head on her shoulder. “Pain doesn’t really bother me, you know. It’s like an annoying sound I can tune out. But,” he trailed off and took her left hand in both of his. “But I’m not used to inside pain.” Red’s brow crinkled as she tried to puzzle that out.

“You mean, emotional pain?”

“Yeah. I’m not good with emotion words, sorry. It hurt a lot to know you were angry. And I made you angry. And then you said you were scared, and that made it hurt more. I ain’t never cared much for how people felt, but you’re different. I care what you think, and how you feel.”

Red squeezed his hands. “Thank you, Max.”

“It felt like too much, it hurt a lot. It made my stomach hurt and my chest hurt and my head hurt.”

“That’s guilt,” Red said. “You felt guilty.” It warmed her heart to know that he cared enough to feel guilty.

Max’s face crinkled and he shook his head. “I don't think I’ve felt that before. I didn’t like it.”

“Do you feel that way about hurting the guards?”

“No, just hurting you.”

Red smiled and pulled him to her side. “Do you still feel that way?”

“No ma’am. It was there for a while, but it’s mostly gone away. You, um, helped last night when you held me.”

She pet his hair and kissed his temple. “Anything else?”

The boy took her hand and played with her fingers. She watched his scarred hands carefully as she wondered about each one. “Mama hit me a lot, all the time,” he said. The way he said it let Red know that he had a lot of unresolved issues regarding his treatment. “But it was always hateful. You- you didn’t make me feel hated, or afraid, or attacked. You made me feel loved and cared about.”

“I do love you,” she said. She took his hands tightly in her own. “I’m glad you feel that way.”

“I appreciate you.”

She bumped his head with hers. “And how is your butt?”

He dropped his head to bury his face in her lap. “Noooooo.”

Red pulled him back up and laughed. “You’re not getting out of this. Just tell me.”

“I got some bruises and it burns.”

Max’s ears, cheeks, and neck were so red she could feel the heat radiating from them. She found him so endearing she kissed the back of his neck. His shoulders scrunched up and he giggled. “Are you ticklish?”

“No.”

“You are!” Red started tickling him and he squealed and squirmed. She stopped and wrapped him in a hug. “I’ll be using this.”

He twisted around to look up at her with a mischievous glint. “Instead of the paddle?”

She pinched his cheek. “No, that’s still on the table. I will absolutely paddle you if you deserve it.” He tried to hide his face again, but she stopped him. “No, sweetie. No face hiding.”

His eyes met hers and she smiled. “That’s embarrassing,” he said.

“Oh, is it? So if I told the girls about last night, you would be-”

“Please don’t do that.”

He spoke so sincerely and earnestly that she looked at him seriously. “I would not do that, Max, do not worry. Your secret is safe.” He smiled and snuggled against her. “Oh, are you comfortable?”

“Very.”

“Good. I’d hate to inconvenience you.” She tickled him again and he squirmed and whined for her to stop.

Nicky walked in before he could retaliate. “This is like the scene from the Lion King with Sarabi grooming Simba. Seriously, the cuteness is disgusting.” Max tried to sit up, but Red’s strong arms tightened around him. Nicky sat on Red’s bunk and looked between them.

“How are you, Max?”

“I’m okay.”

Nicky looked to Red to confirm, and Red nodded. Nicky smirked at them and pulled Red’s pillow onto her lap. “Lorna isn’t talking to me, so I’m bored.”

“What did you do?” Red rubbed Max’s chest as she watched her daughter mull over the question. Max hugged her arm and closed his eyes.

“I might have called her a dirty skank.”

“Nicky.”

“I know, I was just so mad. And horny.”

Red rolled her eyes. She had to wonder how she always ended up with such strange children. In all her years in prison, though, her current group was the strangest. Between Max and Nicky, she never got a calm moment.

Nicky’s head tilted as she looked at Max. “Hey, kid. You like sausage or tacos?”

Red looked down at the boy. His eyes didn't open, but his face took on a disturbed expression. “What?”

“Do you like pounding it into ladies, or getting pounded by dudes?”

“There are so many more options than that,” Max said. “Why limit yourself like that?”

Nicky looked up to the ceiling for a moment. “Okay, back when you’re free, what was your banging situation?”

Red would have put a stop to the conversation, but she liked Max’s uncomfortable facial expression and she was curious about his answer.

“I didn’t have a good situation outside, you know.”

Nicky leaped off the bunk and shouted, “Oh my god, you’re a virgin!” She grabbed Max’s shoulders to shake him. “This is so great!”

Red tried to bat her hands away, but the girl danced away herself. She stood at the exit and said, “I’m going to get you laid, buddy!” and she left.

Max sighed and readjusted himself more comfortably across Red’s lap. She didn’t mind, as she never wanted to let him go. If he was in her arms, he was not getting in trouble. She shifted around to lay next to him. The narrow bunk meant that they were very close together, so Red pulled Max slightly on top of her.

“Nicky is going to be so annoying,” she said. Max stretched and rolled to press his face into her neck.

He felt highly content with her. He actually felt safe with her and that was such a nice experience.

CO Maxwell popped her head into the cube. She sighed when she saw Max and Red sharing a bunk, but she thought about what the Warden had said. “Warden wants to see Rogers in Healy’s office tomorrow at 7.”

Red nodded and Maxwell left. She brushed hair away from Max’s forehead as she said, “Did you hear that, boy?”

“Yes ma’am.” He squirmed around until he found a perfect position. Red let him get comfortable and then put her arm around him and brushed a finger across a scar on his forehead.

***

Max sat at Healy’s desk and spun in the office chair. When the Warden walked in, Max stood up and swayed a bit. The tall man approached Max with an extended hand. “Good to finally meet you, Max. I’m Warden Young. I brought you this.” He handed Max a champagne flavored energy drink. “I have good news for you. I just got word that you won your lawsuit. Since this is essentially a not guilty verdict in a civil sense, we’re going to ease some restrictions on you. You can go outside just like the other inmates, and we’re going to find a suitable work assignment for you.”

“That’s awesome, sir, thank you.” Max opened the can and drank the entire thing in one go. “Oh wow, I’ve missed those.”

The Warden put a strong hand on Max’s shoulder and squeezed. “I know being here must be difficult for you, son. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you to make your stay easier.”

Max knew that the Warden had a particular interest in him, and would going forward. Max's civil case against his family, the county, and the Sheriff's department decided in his favor meant that they had to pay him a boatload of restitution, and he won control of the Rogers Estate in full.

He wondered how he was going to handle that while in prison, given the multiple businesses the Estate owned.

Max’s legs began to shake, sweat poured down his back, and his breathing became ragged. “Absolutely, sir. I appreciate your hospitality. Very kind.”

“Caffeine hit you fast, didn’t it?” Young said.

“Like a tractor on a dark road.”

“Go run that off kid. Officer Bennet, escort him to the track.”

Max slapped Bennet’s pec with the back of his hand and said, “Tag! You’re it!” before he sprinted out of the office. Bennet followed at a run. Healy and the Warden followed after them.

Warden Young stopped partway into the cafeteria as he watched Max vanish out the back delivery door. Bennet was barely to the kitchen when he stopped and put his hands on his head while taking heaving breaths.

“Mother of god! He cleared the fence! Christ!” Bennet continued running and yelling angrily.

Young saw the chef look between him and the delivery door. She was good people, kept the ladies in line.

“So,” Healy said, “Rogers is in charge now, then?”

Young smirked. “That boy is going to get me into Congress.”

****

Red sat on her bunk with her glasses on and a book perched on her knees. Max walked in and he filled the cube with so much frantic energy that she was on edge in an instant.

“What’s up, Max?”

He didn’t slow down in any way as he opened his locker and began grabbing things for a shower. He was covered in sweat and shaking.

“Went for a run, ran really fast, I think Bennet cried. Did 45 laps, that was fun.” Red sighed and put her book to the side as she stood. He spoke fast with gasping breaths at every pause, which made him seem a little crazy. “Then I showed Bennet how to jump over fences. Then I-”

Red put her hand on his shoulder and he jumped. “Jesus, Max. Calm the fuck down.”

“Sorry, Warden gave me a Bang and that shit is serious.”

She smacked the back of his head, hard. He lost his balance and fell over, and then flipped around to face her with his back pressed into the locker. Red grabbed his lower jaw and looked into his eyes. “You’re doing drugs?” she demanded. She raised her hand again and he threw his arms over his head with a cry. She grabbed him and he curled into a tighter ball.

Red tried to ask him again about drugs but he kept whispering, “Please no, please no, please not again.”

She let go of him and took a step back. Max made himself as small as possible and given his large frame, he did a good job. “Max, get up,” she said. “Get off the floor, Max.” Red wasn’t sure he could hear her over his own mumbling. She stepped forward again and shook his shoulder. “Get up, Max.”

His eyes snapped open and he looked at her in fear. She remembered that look from the closet half a year prior, when he had looked up at her as she left him there in a puddle of his own blood.

Red sat down and opened her arms and gave a pleading look. After a moment, he flung himself into her arms, as she had hoped. All he had wanted after she had cracked his face open was for her to hold him and make everything better.

She kissed the side of his head and held him tight. “I’m sorry, Max. Tell me what happened.”

He clung to her tightly. “Caffeine. He gave me caffeine. I’m sorry, ma’am, sorry.”

Overwhelmed for a moment, Red thought about what Max must have been like as a little boy. Wild, restless, willful, and so desperate for love and acceptance that he sought out danger and pain when he couldn’t find it. He had probably been tiny and cute, with those enormous eyes and his infectious smile.

“It’s okay, love,” she said. “I’m sorry. I should have asked before I hit you.” He was sweaty but had not started to smell, which Red was thankful for. Teen boys were probably the worst smelling creatures on the planet. Even after running several miles, Max just smelled like more of himself. “I love you, sweet. You didn’t eat anything today. Go take a shower and I’ll make you something from commissary.”

Max shook his head and squeezed her tighter. Red said, “Ooph. Okay. Just a little bit longer.”

Lorna peeked into the cube and strategically did not mention the fact that Red was practically buried under a shaking, sweaty Max. “Red, sorry to bother you, but I heard one of the new girls talking about you and Max, and I thought I should tell you on account of it was mean.”

Red waved her into the cube and Lorna sat on Red’s bunk, much more delicately than Nicky’s usual flop. “What did she say?”

“She was talking about how close you and Max are, saying it was gross and weird.”

Red nodded. Max had heard and his spine stiffened, but he did not try to leave her arms. “Who was it?” Red asked the small Italian girl.

Lorna looked around to see if anyone else was listening. “That girl Taylor. Leanne. She said some real rude things about you, Red.”

“Thank you for telling me this, Lorna. Max, go take a shower.” He stood up without complaint, pulled her to her feet, and then continued to his shower. Red turned to Lorna once they were alone and observed the younger woman. She was a good looking girl, very vain and high strung. “So, tell me precisely what she said.”

Lorna looked highly uncomfortable, which told Red the insults were very bothersome. “She said, and I stress that she said this, I don’t think this, but she said you two must be together- intimately, and she said it’s gross because you’re- older- and because he’s, you know, a half-man?”

Red raised an eyebrow at the term half man but absorbed the rest. “I see. This bitch is going to regret this.” Lorna nodded in agreement.

“Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.”

Lorna left the cube and Max returned a few minutes later. He had a towel around his waist and he used another to dry his hair. She watched him as he put on boxers under the towel then removed the towel altogether. He was ripped, and he had an easy manner of moving that showed he was relaxed and content.

Her boy squatted down by his locker to collect pants and a tank top. She walked up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders before he could stand.

“Max, if I asked you to do something for me, would you do it? No questions asked?”

He dropped his head back to look at her earnestly. “Yes.”

She squeezed his shoulders and stared into his eyes.

“Good boy.”


	12. A Plan

Max held his hand over Leanne’s mouth and watched as her eyes opened in panic. New inmates spent so much time sleeping that catching her unaware had been easy. “Do not _ever_ speak poorly of Red again. If you do, I will fucking kill you.” He let go of her and left the room to return to his dorm. 

He made every effort to avoid the COs, but he had a feeling that Maxwell had seen him. He had suspicions of why she said nothing of him sneaking around the Rooms, which were off-limits unless assigned to bunk there.

Red was on her bunk reading a book when he returned. “How was your day?” she asked without looking away from her page.

“Good, ma’am, thank you. And yourself?”

“Very good.” She jerked her head for him to stand beside her bunk. Max walked over and she gestured him closer until she kissed his cheek and whispered, “I owe you.”

He whispered back, “You don’t owe me anything, ever.” He kissed her cheek and went back to his bunk, where he plopped down and faced her.

Nicky walked into the cube and looked at Red. She was unusually reluctant and her shoulders were hunched. Nicky generally put on a confident and bubbly facade around Red, so the older woman could tell right away that something was wrong. 

“Max, leave,” Red ordered. 

Max stood and left the cube without a word. Nicky sat on Red’s bunk and covered her face with her hands. “She said she wasn’t going to visit anymore,” Nicky said. “She said that she’s tired of making up lies about where she goes once a month.”

Red pulled Nicky down beside her and hugged her girl. “I’m sorry, Nicky.” Red did not have a high opinion of Nicky’s mother had never been high, but it seemed to lower each time she spoke to the girl.

They sat like that for a while, with Red combing a hand through her hair and telling her everything would be okay. 

After fifteen minutes, Max walked in with two steaming mugs, set them on the locker, and walked out again. “Nicky, your mother is bullshit.”

The younger woman shook her head. “You’re my mother. She was just somebody that was supposed to be there.”

Red pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. “I will always be here for you, Nicky. Max brought tea.”

They sat up and grabbed the mugs. “Max is too good for this world,” Nicky said. She held the cup in her hands and let it warm her fingers. She ducked her head and said, “Listen, ma, I got a question. Don’t get mad, because I’m just curious.”

“What is it, Nicky?” Red asked. 

Nicky ducked her head and swirled the mug of tea. “Do you like Max?”

Red knew what the girl was asking, but she wanted to torment her a little. “Very much so. He’s a good boy, he does what he’s told, and he is very respectful.” 

“No, Red, I mean like-” Nicky made an obscene hand gesture. Red slapped her hands.

“Jesus, Nicky. What the hell?” 

“I’m just saying. He’s very comfortable with you. And he’s a young, hot, muscular, virgin who is always eager to please. You’re saying you’re not attracted?”

Red shifted uncomfortably. “He’s a child.”

“Not according to the law,” Nicky said with an eyebrow waggle. “Legally, he’s a full-grown _man_ , free for the taking. I’ve been trying to hook him up, but nobody seems to want him. Seems people assume you have dibs on him, they don’t want to interfere.”

Red sighed and said, “Jesus. No, I am not fucking Max. He’s on the market as far as I’m concerned.” 

Nicky nodded. “Sorry, just had to know. In the name of Max’s first fuck.”

Red ran a hand across her face. “That’s enough of that, Nicky.”

****

Nicky walked into the rec room and sat with Max. He noticed that she looked much happier than she had in the cube. "How is your ass?"

"I'm sorry, what?" 

She smirked at him as she collected the playing cards off the table and shuffled. "You went to SHU. I know Red beat your ass. She doesn't fuck around with SHU. Last time I went, she got me with a wooden spoon. Yow."

Blood rushed to Max’s face. "What?"

"Oh, come on. Just tell me."

"She didn't use a spoon," Max said. Nicky cackled and slapped his arm. 

"I knew it. Don't feel bad, bud. It's one of the ways Red shows her love. She was so mad and worried when you were gone I'm surprised you can sit."

Max stood and pushed his chair in. "I have to go somewhere else now."

Nicky's laugh followed him out of the rec room.

Back in the cube, Red was stretched out on her bunk with her arms across her chest and her eyes closed. He tried to be as quiet as possible, but Red said, “Max, come here.” She gently pulled him to sit next to her. “Does it bother you that people think we’re- together?”

“Not even a little bit,” Max said. “Does it bother you?”

“It irritates me. I’m especially annoyed that people think they can talk about me. It makes me think they have forgotten who I am.”

Max looked down at her and she opened her eyes to stare back. “What do you need, ma’am?”

“Fear.”

He kissed her forehead and said, “Anything for you.” She grabbed the front of his shirt and held him close. There was an interesting mix of fear and trust in his eyes. She stroked his cheek and smiled at him.

“You’re really stacking these favors, boy. I’m not sure how I’ll repay you.”

“I told you,” he said, “you don’t owe me anything, ever.”

“That’s not how prison works.”

He smiled and pressed his forehead to hers. “Fine, you owe me a steak dinner and a bottle of whiskey.”

She pushed him away with a laugh. “Get real, silly boy.”

He plopped down on his bunk and said, “Oh, well then, I guess you’ll just owe me forever.”

Red threw a pillow at him, which he caught and kept.

****

Red handed Max a tray of food. He thanked her and walked over to the handwashing sink.

“Oh, no,” Red said as she chased him away toward a pile of flour bags. “You’ve exceeded the sink weight limit.”

He laughed as he ate toast and asked, “Are you calling me fat?”

“Yes.”

“Ouch.”

The morning had gone smoothly. Red enjoyed the easy days. As breakfast began to wrap up, a group of the skinhead girls walked into the kitchen and squared up to Red. “What?” she demanded.

“Your girls talked shit to us,” the tallest one said. 

“Did they mention the smell? Because that’s worth mentioning.” Max stood up and walked over to them. He stopped behind and to the side of Red. She held up a hand to him but kept her gaze on the intruders. 

The skinheads glared. “Listen, you commie cunt, keep your girls in line, or we’ll fuck _you_ up.”

Max took a step forward but stopped when his chest pressed into the back of Red’s hand. “That’s right,” the shorter skinhead said, “keep your pet race-traitor in line. It would suck if he ran into traffic and got hit by a car.”

Red felt her face harden before she even registered the words. Max pressed harder into her hand, and she knew that if she dropped her arm he would attack the two women. The fact that it was only her will that held back the massive killer made Red smirk. 

“I think you’re finished,” Red said. “Goodbye.”

They knocked over a box of fruit as they left. Red flipped her hand around and grabbed Max's shirt before he could follow them. “Sit,” she said. Max turned and went back to the flour. 

She felt his eyes on her the rest of the afternoon. After dinner, Red took Max into the dry good storage. She pushed him into the shelf and said, “Just say it.” Red made sure that her workers could hear her as they went about cleaning up.

Max’s pleading tone amused Red. “Let me kill them.”

“No.”

“Come on, please?”

“What did I just say?"

Max’s voice raised just a little, and he took half a step forward. “They disrespected-”

“ _Me_ ,” Red said. She pushed Max again. “Watch yourself.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, and he looked uncomfortable enough to cringe. As per their plan, Max raised his voice quite a bit. “Damn it! This is bullshit.”

His apologetic face almost broke her resolve for the next step. She grabbed his arm and said, “Take a walk with me.”

She dragged him outside as most of the kitchen staff watched. Once they made it behind the greenhouse, Max practically crawled out of his skin. “Sorry, sorry, sorry!”

With an eye roll, Red grabbed his shoulders. “Calm down, honey. You did good. Exactly as I asked.” She sat him down on a crate and looked into his eyes very seriously. “Are you still okay with the next part, Max?”

Max's plan sounded stupid to her when she first heard it, but then she considered that its stupidity was its greatest asset. Nobody would guess that she and Max had orchestrated the whole thing. Getting Nicky and Boo to trash talk the skinheads had been easier than she anticipated, but it worked in her favor. They didn't even ask why.

“Yes.” His complete lack of hesitation was gratifying for her.

“Okay.” 

She punched him across the left eye.

His head barely moved.

Red’s hand hurt like hell.

“Fuck,” she said, shaking out her hand to relieve the sting. Max’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth, but Red covered it with her left hand. “If you apologize because I got hurt when I punched you, I will actually punish you for being absurd.”

Max smiled because her accent thickened when she was irritated, as his own did. She rolled her eyes at him, probably because she knew what he was thinking.

He took her hands in his own and smiled. “Listen, you ain’t goin to hurt me more than I can handle. I trust you.”

Red leaned back and stared at him. Those words were spoken so rarely within a prison. Nobody had said that to her in years. And then there was a boy staring up at her with such a serious face, telling her that he trusted her.

She nodded and punched him again. He laughed. “Ma’am, you’re terrible at this.” She raised an eyebrow to remind him who was still in charge. He raised his hands to placate her, and then he gently took her right arm to demonstrate how to punch. “You have to follow through. Don’t stop punching as soon as you touch me. Drive all the way through.”

Red took a deep breath and nodded. She drew her fist back and brought it forward to crack against his jaw. Several more blows followed. Punching him was harder than she imagined when he first told her his plan. 

When his face looked properly bruised, Red stopped and caught her breath. Max stood and pulled her into a hug. 

“Let me see your face,” she said to him. He pulled back and she looked at him. “Oh, honey. Are you okay?”

“Of course,” he said. She pulled him down and kissed the bruises on his eye, cheek, and the side of his mouth. He smiled and hugged her again. 

She pulled away after several moments, pointed at his face, and said, “You better make this worth it.”

He nodded.

Red left the greenhouse and took a stroll back inside. She went to her cube and hoped that Max would be fine. He did have a habit of pretending to be okay when he was not okay. 

The 8pm count rolled around, and Red stood outside her cube. Max entered the dorm and stood on the other side of the entry. Many of the other women in the dorm could see the bruises on her hand, and the ones on his face were clear.

Whispers spread bunk to bunk, and after count, traveled to other dorms. Kitchen workers gossiped amongst the other women and told them everything that had gone down in the kitchen. Within minutes, most of the inmates knew about Red beating the hell out of Max for pissing her off.

Max laid down on his bunk and faced the wall. She would have to keep up the ruse until the final count, but Max had the easy job of napping.

Nicky walked in and gestured to Max. “What _the fuck_ , Red?”

When Nicky used her name, Red could be pretty sure that her girl was pissed. 

Red gave her a warning look and shook her head. Nicky’s shoulders set and she crossed her arms. Red stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the girl, who tried to pull away. Red held tight and whispered into her ear, “Calm down, honey. Max is helping me, this was his idea. He made fun of how terrible I am at punching. Play along, or remain silent.”

Nicky pulled back and said, “You two are crazy. Certifiably crazy. I love you.”

She left and went to her cube, where she described Max’s injuries to Mercy in detail. 

After the final count, Red slipped over to Max’s bunk and put her arms around him. He turned and pressed his face into her. She squeezed him and said, “I’m sorry, honey.”

His head shook against her as he adjusted to be more comfortable. “You didn’t hurt me, I promise.”

She pressed a kiss to his forehead and held him anyway. “You’re a good boy.” She could feel him smile, and a shiver went down his spine. “Be careful, boy. The girls might find out your badass exterior is all an act and you turn into pudding if someone says that you’re a good boy.”

He squirmed in embarrassment. “ _Ma’am_.”

“It’s true,” she teased. “On the outside, you’re a hardened killer and let everyone think you're so scary.” She lowered her voice even more and moved closer to his ear to whisper, “But on the inside, you’re a good boy that wants cuddles and kisses. Aren’t you?”

Max sighed in frustration and pulled back to look at her. She saw warmth in his eyes as he smiled at her. “You’re the only person that’s ever said that to me. So it can stay between us.”

“Of course, honey.” She couldn’t resist the impulse to tease him more. “And Norma. Of course I’m going to tell Norma.”

“Oh no.”


	13. Easter

Red sat in her office as lunch continued and tried to contend with her growing headache. COs pulled Max from the cube early that morning for a meeting, and she was concerned for him. He had a mouth and an alarming lack of impulse control. Nicky and Lorna weren’t speaking again. Gina was hormonal. 

Norma seemed to be the only one with any sanity left.

Just as the noise level in the cafeteria crescendoed, Max walked into her office and sat down on the filing cabinet. All of the background noise seemed to fade as she saw his smiling face. 

“Well, hello there,” she said to him. His smile widened when she was happy to see him. Her body relaxed and he could see a little tension leave her shoulders. He knew that Red worked harder than she needed to, and she stressed constantly about her family inside and outside the prison. He was glad to bring her some happiness. “How are you, honey?”

“Fine, ma’am. I had to see a psychologist. He did a bunch of tests. My trial is in three weeks, right after Easter.”

The thought of Max’s trial strained Red’s already limited happiness, but she hid that for the boy’s sake. “It’s going to be fine, honey.” She put a hand on his knee and squeezed. “You’re going to be okay.”

Max did not have the heart to tell her the odds. Mississippi had held back the murder charge from the Feds because they wanted him to receive the death penalty. An atheist, transgender man accused of murdering a Deputy Sheriff in rural Mississippi was not going to have a good time at trial. Not to mention the influence his family had within the state. Even if he had technically won their estate in civil court, they still had connections as the fortune was effectively frozen. 

****

Easter was another time that Red enjoyed. She didn’t give a shit about Jesus, but her girls got so excited about the holiday that Red couldn’t help but join them.

“Max! Stop eating all the green beans!” Max withdrew from the prep table and walked near the potatoes on his way back to his seat. “And don’t you dare touch the potatoes!”

“Ma’am!” Max said in exasperation. “ _What_ would I do with a raw potato?”

She glared at him, so he sat quietly and said no more. 

Easter dinner was everything Red always hoped for. Her family sat together in the corner of the room and laughed at Nicky’s antics. Red sat next to Max and basked in her family's happiness, glad that she could help provide a little bit of joy in such a dreary place. Boo and Mercy sat next to Nicky, and Red sent them several warning looks over them getting too handsy. Yoga and Sister were in deep conversation about their respective beliefs. 

As talk began to turn to Max’s love life, the skinhead girls approached and stood by their table. “Good to see you got your feral beast under control,” said the one that Red knew to be Smith. Max tensed but did not move, except to shift his right knee against her leg. She put a hand on his shoulder and looked at the girls. Red had known that getting Boo and Nicky to shit-talk the skinheads would have ramifications beyond what she needed for her plan to get the prison talking about her. But she was not angry about it, if only because it gave more chances to affirm her reputation.

“I think you can leave now,” Red said. Much of the noise in the cafeteria dimmed to watch the confrontation.

“And I think you can stuff it up your dry cunt,” the other one, Adams, said. 

Due to her proximity, Red could hear the very low growl from deep in Max’s chest, but it probably went unheard by the others. She squeezed his shoulder in warning. The COs were paying close attention to the exchange and she didn’t want a debacle.

“You’ve said enough, now. You’re disturbing my family.”

Smith picked up a handful of mashed potatoes from Nicky’s plate and looked between Max and Red. “What the fuck,” Nicky said with an angry look to her emptied plate

Before anyone could tell the girl it was a bad idea, Smith flung the mashed potatoes at Red, hitting her square in the chest. She then wiped her hand on Max’s shirt.

As calmly as she could, Red used her right hand to wipe the potato from her shirt. She then removed her left from Max’s shoulder. 

He was out of his seat and attacking Smith before Red’s hand lowered all the way.

By the time two guards made it to Max, he had snapped at least three of Smith’s bones and Adams had run away. Max pushed Smith to the ground and then dropped his knees with his hands behind his head just as O’Neill and Bennet reached him. 

Red watched as they handcuffed him and took him from the cafeteria. 

“So,” Nicky said after a moment, “can I have his potatoes?”

To everyone’s surprise, Max walked back into the cafeteria and sat beside Red before the end of dinner. “Where’re my potatoes?”

Boo slapped a hand on the table. “How the _fuck_ are you not in max? Or SHU?”

Max said, “I got an understanding.”

If anyone noticed that Max sat just a little bit closer to Red than customary, nobody said anything.

****

That night in the cube, Max took off his shirt to go to sleep. Red grabbed his arm and looked at him. Bruises covered his chest, shoulders, and back.

“What is this?” she asked as she ran gentle fingers over the marks. He tried to move away from her, but Red held him in place. “What happened?”

“The guards,” he said. “They can’t send me anywhere, but they can make their feelings known. I’m fine.”

“Sit down, honey, I’ll get something for that.” Max sat on his bunk and looked down at his hands in his lap. 

After a few moments, Red walked over with a white tube and rubbed something that was cold and clear on his right pec, over the largest bruise. “Arnica,” she said. “My youngest sent it to me for my back. Didn’t work for that, but it helps bruises.”

Max nodded but remained silent. Red continued on to the rest of the bruises. She took her time attending to each injury, slowly spreading the gel across his warm skin. They were silent for several moments. Red put a hand on each of his shoulders and kneaded the hard muscles close to his neck. He dropped his head as knots loosened. 

When she finished, Red bent forward and kissed his forehead. She capped the tube and set it on Max’s locker before she sat beside him. “You did good for me, Max.” She ran a hand through his hair and watched him relax into her touch. “Your trial is in a few days. How do you feel?”

“Fine.”

“Listen, Max. I’m not them,” she said with a general wave outside the cube. “You don’t have to pretend with me, boy. I care about you, but I can’t help you if you aren’t honest with me.”

He leaned back against the cube wall and looked at her. “I’m fine, really. The trial is just a show. They’ll say guilty, and I’ll get death. And in 10-15 years, they’ll put a needle in my arm. Or whatever it is they’ll be killing people with in the future.” He smiled at her and held up his hands in a gesture of defeat.

Red turned away and looked at the back wall. She didn’t want him to see her eyes as she tried to fight back tears.

When she had herself under control, Red turned back to him and said, “No. No, boy, that’s not how this is going to go. You’re going to be fine. You’ll get out eventually. And you can live with me.”

For a moment, Max looked desperately hopeful. Then that look vanished and he smirked. “Gee, ma’am, I never took you for a hopeless dreamer.”

Without meaning to, she glared at him. Max shrank back and dropped his eyes. “You’re not taking this seriously,” Red said in a warning tone. He pulled his feet up close to him until he was in as small a ball as possible. “Don’t hide from me. Look at me.”

She should have known her temper would cool when he looked at her. She had a hard time staying mad at his sad eyes. 

“You listen to me,” Red said. “You listen close. They will not find you guilty because that _man’s_ death was not murder, it was self-defense. Do you understand that, boy? They’re not going to kill you. You just have to do everything you can to come back to me.”

Max nodded, though he remained unconvinced. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. She rearranged them on the bunk so that her back was against his pillows and he was pulled up to her chest. 

“Good boy,” she whispered. “You know you’re mine, right? And once you’re mine, I take care of you. Nothing is going to happen to you. You’re safe with me.”

****

“Rogers!” 

Red looked back at her boy leaned against the wall. He looked decidedly unperturbed as he returned her look. “Max?”

He didn’t respond, and a second later, a very large man in all black with a badge hanging around his neck walked into the kitchen. He looked around until he spotted Max. “Rogers, come on you little shit. Your fate awaits.”

“Where are you taking him?” Red demanded. She moved in front of Max and stared down the burly man. 

“Wow, Rogers. You make the ride or dies real quick. Miss, I’m taking the boy to his trial.”

“His trial is in four days.”

The man laughed. “It’s Max Rogers. It took me three days to get him here. He escaped four times for alcohol on the way here.”

“I came back,” Max said. 

“That’s a _weird_ defense for drugging me so you could score a Four Loko. I mean, if you’re going to take out a Federal Marshal, why settle for that bullshit?”

“Desperate times.” Max took Red’s hand and tugged until she faced him. “I gotta go.”

She pulled him into a hug and kissed him above his ear. “Take care of yourself,” she said. “Don’t be stupid.” She kissed him three more times and then pushed him back to look in his eyes for several long moments. “I’ll be waiting.”

Max squeezed her arms and then walked toward the Marshal. “Alright, Buzzkill Bobbins, let’s go.” The Marshal grabbed Max’s shoulder while he looked back into the cafeteria. 

“Listen, kid. I got three hotshots that think they’re the shit. I need you to make their lives _miserable._ I got money on this.” He spun Max around and handcuffed him. Max looked at Red with a smirk. 

“What’s in it for me?” he asked.

“You win me this jackpot, kid, and I’ll personally trade out the water at your table for vodka during your trial.”

“Sold.”

Max let himself be led into the cafeteria, where three brawny and heavily geared up Marshals waited. He twisted his hands as best he could while Marshal Gavin introduced him.

“Gentlemen, this is Max Rogers. Don’t let him out of sight for a _second_. We have three days to drive him to Jackson.”

“No sweat,” the middle of the three men said with a confident smirk.

Max held up the handcuffs on his right index finger and then let them clatter to the ground. “I like ‘em cocky,” he said. “Shotgun!”

He pushed through the three men, who stared back at Gavin. “Absolutely not!” the Marshal said.

“Fine, but I get to pick the music.”

The Marshal began to follow him. “Negative, Ghost Rider. That bullshit you listen to is awful.”

At the door, Max turned around and threw a badge, a wallet, a wedding ring, and a cell phone back at the Marshals. They collected their stuff angrily and followed him out.

Nicky sat in the silent cafeteria as the Marshals trailed after Max. “They are _definitely_ giving him the needle.” Something smacked the back of her head so hard that some of her hair fell into her face, so she turned to see Red standing behind her. “Sorry, ma.”

“Max is going to be fine.”

Blind optimism was not Red’s signature. The rest of the family looked at each other uneasily. Lorna was the only one that nodded and smiled at Red. “Yeah! He’s going to come back in a few days and everything will be normal.”

None of them felt so confident, but the idea of popping Red’s bubble terrified them


	14. Trials

Red sat in the center of the TV room with part of her family around her. She tasked Norma with preparing breakfast so she could watch the trial. The room was packed but silent as many women wanted to see the most exciting thing to happen at Litchfield in years. Poussey turned up the volume and they watched as a network newswoman appeared from a studio.

“Tonight, we’re bringing you the trial of Max Rogers, known throughout the nation as Mad Max, the Menace of Mississippi. He stands accused of the brutal murder of Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Rushmore nearly one year ago. The trial is taking place in Mississippi, where our correspondent Douglas Taft is in the gallery of the courtroom as the trial is set to begin.”

The TV cut to a courtroom. Everyone was getting settled, and a man stood off to the side of the screen. “We’re here in Jackson, Mississippi for the Max Rogers case. The defendant himself is being brought in just a few moments from now. We’re allowed to roll cameras for the duration of the trial without commentary. Here’s Max now.”

Two large men led Max into the courtroom and began undoing his handcuffs. Max was in a conservative suit, but his most striking accessory was the large smile he wore. Red felt her heart sink. Her boy was a certifiable idiot. 

The trial commenced when the judge walked in and everyone stood and then sat. “Before I bring the jury in,” the judge said, “first, is the defendant handcuffed? I will require that the defendant be handcuffed during this trial. Secondly, there will be only professionalism and respect in my courtroom- _Rogers_ , I will muzzle you in addition to the handcuffs if you can’t behave.”

“I think it’s been proven that I can’t behave.”

“Counsel! Advise your client to remain quiet.”

The defense attorney leaned over to Max and whispered frantically. Max’s smirk never left his face.

The trial went downhill from the beginning. Red watched with exasperation and anger she only contained due to years of practice.

_“Sit down, boy!”_

_“Christ, Rogers, shut up!”_

_“For the love of God, get off the table!”_

_“Remove the defendant from the courtroom!”_

At lunch, Red sat with only a cup of coffee and stared at the opposite wall over the server’s heads. People came up to her and essentially spoke condolences. She ignored all of them in favor of continuing to glare at the wall.

*****

The rest of the day went much the same. COs periodically made token efforts to get her back in the kitchen, but she waved them off. She knew Healy would put in some of her accrued time off. Red had not considered that the trial would be televised until Poussey found out the night before.

Sometime between Max threatening to piss on the wall if he didn’t get a restroom break and Max singing show tunes anytime the prosecution annoyed him, Red began thinking of ways to punish him when he returned. Because Red refused to believe any possibility besides Max returning to her.

The family watched in mounting horror as Max seemed to sabotage himself at every turn. He was the least endearing defendant possible, and the inmates of Litchfield knew a thing or two about trials. A jury was just as likely to convict the defendant for being a jerk as they were for the defendant actually being guilty. 

One of the most interesting parts of the trial happened when Max’s attorney poured himself some water and choked for a minute and a half before he made the excuse that it went down the wrong pipe. During the entire thing, Max sat next to him and finished his own glass before he poured another. 

They adjourned at the end of the day to reconvene the next morning. 

But Max wasn’t there the next morning. The judge demanded his whereabouts, but the Marshals reported that he had escaped custody. The judge declared that if Max was not present by Monday morning, he would declare a mistrial and add felony escape charges to Max’s next trial.

Red spent the weekend in a state of general denial. Deep down, she felt fear as she had never felt before, but she covered that up with a thick layer of false optimism. She did not even want to consider the alternative. If they found Max guilty, there was only a slim chance he would return to Litchfield. If they sentenced him to death, he would be sent to Mississippi to sit on death row, and Red would never see him again.

Tension in the prison on Monday morning surpassed the highest level even the oldest inmates could remember. Red sat in her seat and Nicky held her arm. 

The judge entered, and Max was not at his table. “Counselor, where is your client?”

“That’s- see- He posted a video from Georgia last night. It was- NSFW and actually a little- triggering. But he said he would be here bright and early.”

Many of the older inmates of Litchfield asked what the lawyer meant. 

As the inmates settled down, the doors to the courtroom opened, and Max walked in. He looked _rough_ , as if he hadn’t slept or even slowed down in three days. He wore a cowboy hat, sunglasses, and an unbuttoned flannel shirt that had the sleeves ripped off, with nothing under it. He had various bruises all over the place, and blood covered his chest and abdomen in smears. He had a blue and pink can in one hand, and a cigarette in the other.

Max said in an accent that sounded distinctly Boston, “Early is a relative term, of course. This doesn’t taste like unicorns, my life is a fucking lie.” He downed the last of whatever was in the can and then tossed it over his shoulder. 

Max sat at the defense table and tilted the hat down over his eyes.

The judge, who was beyond fed up, called the jury in and asked the prosecutor to call their next witness. They called the psychiatrist that had examined Max.

“Doctor Ramone, you spoke extensively with Max Rogers. In your opinion, is Max Rogers legally insane?”

The doctor shifted around and tugged on his suit. “Max Rogers is an interesting case. In general, the legal definition of sanity is the ability to tell right from wrong. Max, more than most, knows right from wrong on a deeply ethical level. However-” The prosecutor’s eyes widened, as his witness went off-script. “-If you take the Elbow Principle into account, things get a little muddier.”

“Can you elaborate on that?”

“The average sane person would not commit a crime if an officer of the law stood at their elbow. A criminal might pick a pocket, but he would not do so in plain view of a police officer. Max Rogers, on the other hand, has committed _most_ of his crimes in plain view of officers of the law. For this reason, I could not state with any certainty of Max Rogers is legally sane or not.”

The prosecutor seemed angry, so he moved on. “There has been concern that Max Rogers may not be competent to stand trial due to cognitive impairment, specifically there is a concern that his IQ might place him in the mentally retarded category.”

Doctor Ramone looked surprised. “Indeed? Max Rogers has an IQ of 155, well above average. He is an exceptionally bright young man.”

“Even though he dropped out of high school?”

“It would be improper to confuse education with intelligence, especially in this case. Max may speak a certain way and he can really convince you that he’s an uncultured rube, but he can do things with a computer that most computer science majors don’t figure out until after graduation. He taught himself how to play a variety of musical instruments without being able to read music. Max’s intelligence and talents would not be out of place in the Ivy Leagues.”

“So, Max Rogers _is_ and _has been_ aware of the consequences of his crimes?”

“Indeed. He stated at the time of the bonfire incident that he was aware he was going to die for what he planned to do.”

The prosecutor sat on top of his desk and said, “So Max Rogers is exceptionally intelligent, gifted, and understands the legal implications of his actions. Thank you, Doctor. Your Honor, no further questions.”

The defense attorney stood up and said, “Are you telling me that this man, who is _asleep_ at his own murder trial, is of above-average intelligence and competency?”

“I am, yes. And he’s not asleep,” the doctor said. “He’s wide awake.”

“I’m just a little confused because I’ve been sitting next to Mr. Rogers and I would not necessarily use the words _highly intelligent_ to describe him.”

The doctor shrugged. “I don’t have an explanation for why Max downplays his intelligence, nor why he has such an arrogant, reckless, devil-may-care facade.”

“Let’s talk about Max’s mental state at the time of the crime. You have reviewed the details of the case. Would you say that at the time that Max killed Ryan Rushmore that he was of sound mind?”

“Heavens, no,” the Doctor said. 

The prosecutor jumped to his feet and yelled, “Objection!”

“Sit down!” barked the judge. “He’s your damn expert witness!”

The defense continued, “ _Not_ of sound mind?”

“No. There is no way that a child could endure what Max endured without severe psychological impairment. At the time of the murder, he would have been beyond all reason, and would have in fact been completely unaware of what he was doing.”

“Objection! He can’t know that!”

“Overruled. Continue.”

“So, doctor, in your _expert_ opinion, can Max Rogers be held responsible for the death of Ryan Rushmore?”

“No.”

“No more questions your honor.”

“I have a question,” Max said as he stood. 

The judge rested his chin on his palm and said, “I’m going to allow it because I’m curious.”

Max turned to the doctor and said, “You’re an asshole.”

The judge openly rubbed his eyes as Max sat in his seat. “Boy, when they told you that you have the right to remain silent, did you just decide you didn’t want to be told what to do?”

Max took off his hat and sunglasses and stared at the judge. “What the fuck does that mean? What right to remain silent?”

The courtroom went silent. The prison went silent. Half of America went silent.

Max’s lawyer’s back straightened. “Max, listen very carefully. When the deputies arrested you for arson for what happened at the Klan rally, what did they _say_ to you? When they put the handcuffs on you?”

Max rolled his head around for a second and then in the thickest, angriest southern accent anyone had ever heard, he said, “Got ya now ya little freak. Ain’t no judge’r jury needed, we gon get you good for this.”

Max’s lawyer rifled through some paperwork, already knowing he would not find one crucial document. Max was not a stupid man; the first thing he told his lawyer was that he had not been Mirandized or properly arrested. Counselor Cross made sure the trial commenced before he brought it up, so double jeopardy would apply, in case things did not go quite in their favor. He had planned to make a big show of the reveal on the second day of the trial, but Max messed that up. 

Cross slammed his hand on the table and jumped to his feet while pointing at the judge. “I demand that these charges be dropped with extreme prejudice! Max Rogers has never been arrested!”

It seemed like every person in the world that heard those words simultaneously screamed, “WHAT?”

Including the judge.

“When Max was 17 years old, he pulled a prank on the KKK, and the local law enforcement, instead of properly arresting him, detained him in a closet, beat him, tortured him, and made him fear for his very life for _six months_ !” The lawyer held up the paperwork. “There is _no_ record of arrest, _no_ Miranda statement! Max _wasn’t_ in the custody of the local sheriff’s department pending trial! He was held hostage by _lunatics_ who happened to have badges. Two of them were his brothers, who have a long history of mistreating Max. In a year and a half of incarceration, Max has _not legally been arrested once._ Given the circumstances, the defense contends that all evidence used against Max Rogers must be reviewed, given the prejudice against Max within the Rogersville County Sheriff’s Department. 

The judge stared at the lawyer, and then Max. The prosecutor sat down in a heap. He tore through his records and various paperwork fell to the floor in his frenzy. 

“Well, Counselor Ridges?” the judge said to the prosecutor. 

America watched as the prosecutor realized his slam dunk, career-making case disintegrated before his eyes. He knew from his conversations with the victim’s fellow Deputies that Max was not guilty of murder, but Alen Ridges had his eye on the Senate, and he did not care who he put in prison as long as it made him look pro-cop and tough on crime. He could push for a mistrial, have the kid arrested, and then reconvene another trial. Even with the kid’s appalling courtroom behavior, between the testimony of the overpaid psychiatrist and the fact that no jury would overlook such treatment of a 17-year-old at the hands of law enforcement, a conviction would be a miracle. 

His own records lacked a Miranda statement, which he had overlooked due to his confidence in his case. Ridges nodded to the judge and then began packing his briefcase. “Your Honor, given recent developments, the People second the motion for dropping the charges against Max Rogers.”

“Will the defendant please rise?” the judge said. His lawyer hauled Max up from what appeared to be a strong doze. “Max Rogers, the charges against you are hereby dropped with prejudice given the new evidence discovered at trial. Double jeopardy is now attached. You will be returned to prison pending a review of your previous conviction. We’re adjourned.”

He slammed the gavel and left the courtroom.

Max fell back into his chair and covered his face. 

*****

The women of Litchfield exploded in emotion when the judge dropped the charges. Taystee and Poussey danced while Boo and Mercy shouted expletives at the TV. News spread through the prison like wildfire. Nicky and Gina watched Red closely. The fierce woman stood and left the room without a word. 

Nicky followed all the way back to their dorm, where Red sat on her bunk. Nicky sat on Max’s bunk and tilted her head. “What’s up, Red?”

Lorna poked her head in as well, and Red gestured for her to sit. The petite woman sat next to Nicky. 

“He’s out,” declared Red.

“ _What_?” demanded Nicky. 

“Max is out. You’re not to speak to him, not to acknowledge him, not to help him in any way. He’s dead to me.”

Nicky glanced to Lorna, whose mouth had dropped open. Nicky didn’t know what to say. She knew Red loved Max, so she could not imagine the woman was thinking clearly.

Lorna said, “Red, it’s _Max_. We can’t kick him out of the family. Why would you do that?”

“I was clear. He was to behave and come back to me.”

“He’s coming back, Red. He’ll be here in a few days.”

“Not important. I better not catch you speaking to him,” warned Red. “I won’t be fucked with in my own prison.”

Nicky did not have a good feeling about Max’s return. The entire trial had felt strange to her. Max did not act anything like his normal self, nothing like she was used to. She really wanted to know what had happened with him, and why he had run off for three days. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I updated the story tags. I want to keep them updated as I make decisions about the story, and I wouldn't want anyone to read something they'd rather not.


	15. Tribulation

It was not a happy group seated in Captain Caputo’s office the morning after Max Roger’s trial ended. Healy, Caputo, Fig, and Warden Young gathered to discuss the recent developments.

“Well, what the fuck?” Fig said. “Who saw that coming? We can’t be held liable, right? We had no way to know he hadn’t been arrested.”

“No,” the Warden said. “We aren’t liable. And I don’t think that Rogers will do anything to jeopardize his stay here. First, there’s our agreement. Second, from what I understand, he’s rather close with the chef.”

“Ew,” Caputo said as he grimaced. “I didn’t need to hear that. I have to sleep at night.”

“Regardless, Max would be aware that if he files suit, he would be moved to a different prison, and his bunkie won’t be going with him. I’ve met many other wardens, not all of them hate the KKK, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I got word from the Director. He has selected our prison for a program next year. He wants to bring kids into prison to have them scared out of committing crimes.”

Healy rolled his eyes from the couch. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Me as well,” the Warden agreed. “I don’t have enough officers for the programs I already have. So I started thinking. How can we accomplish this, and not stretch our officers too thin? Then I thought of all the cheap labor we have available. Who better to scare children than our inmates? I decided I’m going to have Max Rogers plan and run the entire program. If it’s great, I’m taking the credit. If it’s shit, at least it got done.”

“Brilliant,” Fig said. “We’re going to let our most dangerous inmate loose on a bunch of kids? Aren’t you the one that decided he can’t have a job assignment?”

The Warden smirked. He was not about to admit that he had not denied Rogers a job assignment because he was too dangerous, although that wasn’t without merit. The young man has obliterated a man’s face with his bare hands. No, he had denied Rogers a job assignment because he knew Max would hate any possible assignment, and he knew Max didn’t need the income. So he let the kid wander the prison freely while everyone else worked. 

“I think Max is uniquely qualified. He’s intelligent, resourceful, bored, and most importantly, he’s close in age to these kids. Not to mention, it means a lot less work for the rest of you.”

Caputo clapped his hands together and said, “Sounds great.”

*****

Max grumbled through the mask that Gavin had on him. It was irritating and rather insulting. On top of the full-body shackles and ankle bracelet, it seemed like overkill. 

Gavin seemed to be impressed with himself that Max had not escaped on the way back to Litchfield, but Max had not even tried. He barely had the energy, or the will, to move after the trial. He could not believe the technicality that had gotten him off, and it had come up from a flippant comment from the judge. He had expected a mistrial, not for the charges to be dropped entirely. 

In processing, Gavin removed the face mask, shackles, and tracker. Wanda Bell gave him a dark look. “We’ll be drug testing you.”

“You’ll be so disappointed.”

****

Max walked into the empty cafeteria and to Red’s office. The door was open and Red and Gina were inside. Both glanced at him, and Gina looked to Red. 

“Leave us,” Red said.

Gina walked out of the office without another look at Max.

“Ma’am-”

Red did not look at him when she said, “Shut your mouth.” Max did so. He stared at her as she looked over inventory lists and menus. “Do you know what you did to me?” Her voice remained quiet and very controlled as she spoke.

“I don’t-”

“Of course you don’t,” she said in the same almost soft voice. “Because you’re arrogant, and you’re selfish. I told you to be careful. I told you to do everything you could to come back to me.”

“I’m here.”

Red ignored him. “You didn’t do that, did you? In fact, from what I saw, it seemed like you did everything you could to be convicted. And then,” she chuckled coldly and continued, “you vanished. For three days, I didn’t know where you were. If you were safe. Even if you were alive. How do you think that made me feel? Don’t answer that. If you want to operate alone, fine. You’re out. Just leave.”

“Red, I had to-”

“No.”

“Red, I need y-”

“How’s this for a change? I don’t _care_ what _you_ need. Leave. I’m _done_ with you.”

Max stood there for a moment. He was impressed, because Red had not looked at him once in the time she had ripped his heart out. 

He walked back to his bunk in a daze. People greeted him, but he merely nodded absently until he made it to his bunk and laid down. He felt like he was outside of his body.

As he laid on the uncomfortable mat, Max stared at the beige cinder block and tried to think of anything except how badly his chest ached. Except, everything he thought of made it hurt more. He thought of the mother that reviled him for who he was. He thought of the father that hurt him for being himself. He thought of the four brothers that enjoyed tormenting him. He thought of the one brother who had ever shown him any kindness, who had blown up.

The ache intensified until it was almost unbearable. He wanted it gone.

****

Nicky stood outside of Red’s cube and watched Max stare at the wall. She wanted to say something to him, anything, but she knew it would piss Red off. She knew how much Red’s cold shoulder hurt.

She left the dorm and sought out the black girls in the TV room. She sat with Taystee and Poussey, who regarded her with suspicion. 

“Look, Max is back,” she said. They smiled, but she shook her head. “Red kicked him out of the family.” 

Poussey sucked in a breath and Taystee said, “Aw, shit.”

“Yeah. He’s- I think he’s broken. I think- guys, I think something is wrong with him. Can you keep an eye on him when he’s around? Nothing weird, just let me know if he acts strange?”

“You got it,” Taystee said without hesitation. Max had taken a hard fall for her and she hadn’t forgotten the wild look on his face as he fought the guards. She had been only a few feet away, and she got his blood on her pants from the guard’s baton swing.

“Yeah,” Poussey added, “we got him. Max our boy.”

Nicky went to Spanish Harlem to talk to Gloria. She had a similar conversation with the Mamis and then she went to Lorna’s bunk. The small Italian was looking through a magazine, but her vantage point gave her a decent view of Max across the way.

“What’s up?”

Lorna whispered, “He hasn’t moved. At all. Red came back about five minutes ago. They haven’t talked. He looks so sad.”

For days, Nicky tried to convince Red to take Max back. Nobody had seen him move in 72 hours, not even to use the restroom. He hadn’t rolled over, sneezed, or scratched. CO’s checked to make sure he was alive during count, but they didn’t dare order him around, given his connection to the Warden. 

Red would hear none of it. She just gave Nicky that look that made her ears sting. “Ma, he’s a kid. They’re, you know, wild and unpredictable.”

The older woman shook her head. “He has to learn.”

“Ma- you’re hurting him. Again.”

Red continued to cut carrots. “Hurt is a good teacher.”

Red knew that Nicky didn’t understand. The girl didn’t know that Red watched Max all night, just stared at his back as he slept. She wanted so badly to go to him, to cuddle him and hold him and tell him how much she loved him. But he had not learned. She wanted to break him of his rebellious, wild side. He wasn’t broken, he was sulking. 

***

Max left his cube on the fourth day. He didn’t notice that several women paid extra attention to him as he moved about the prison. He did notice that none of his usual compatriots spoke to him, not even Nicky. 

He spent most of the day in the library reading about Ancient Greek city-states. He was a slow reader and only made it a few chapters before Taystee returned from lunch. She sat down next to him on the floor in the back row and took the book from him. 

“I ain’t seen you eat since you got back. And I _doubt_ you ate during your little self appointed furlough.” 

“I’m fine.”

Taystee heard such an automatic tone in his voice that she knew that was a goddamn lie, but he said it with so much confidence that she let it go. 

Most of the rest of Max’s interactions were similar throughout the next week. He wandered around aimlessly each day until he entered the library to read until he had to be back in his cube. 

Sharing a cube with Red was the icing on the shit cake that was his life.

She continued to ignore him, and he did everything he could to make that as easy as possible. He made no attempt to speak to her, and he stayed away from her and her family as much as the confines of the prison would allow.

***** 

Red missed Max. She had grown quite fond of her little shadow that sat with her in the mornings with half-open eyes and a cup of coffee. She missed his small smiles when she looked at him across the kitchen and the way he ran away from whatever food she scolded him for eating.

But prison was not a place for softness, and she couldn’t afford to let people think she was weak. She had spent her years in prison as the top dog, and it wasn’t because she let people off easy. 

Red directed Gina and Norma, and the rest of her staff around the kitchen as breakfast started.

15 minutes into service, a scream tore Red’s attention away from the eggs. “Red!” Her own name certainly caught her curiosity. “Ay, dios mio! _Red_!

The chef wiped her hands on a rag and walked to the cafeteria. Gloria was halfway to her, pale covered in blood. The CO by the juice dispenser tried to stop her, worried she was hurt, but Gloria ran by her to Red. She grabbed the Russian’s arms, unconcerned that she left bloody handprints all over her white chef’s shirt.

A million terrible thoughts went through her mind as Gloria tried frantically to say something to her, but all Red could think about was how much blood was on Gloria’s khakis. Time slowed as Red tried to listen.

“So much blood, Red, I tried to stop the bleeding but there were _so many slashes_ -”

“ _Who_ , woman?” Red barked.

Gloria’s eyes widened and she said, “Max.”

The next few moments of Red’s life happened in super slow motion. Her family left their seats and made it out of the cafeteria as one horrified group. The rest of the women watched Red as she stared at the blood on Gloria. She turned and entered her kitchen, her sanctuary. Gloria followed and Norma walked over to hug Red.

Gina offered Gloria a damp rag to wipe off. “What happened?” Gina asked.

“The big-haired one? Nicky? She asked us to keep an eye on Max, said he’s been real off lately.” Gloria took a few deep breaths and tried to collect herself. “So I’ve been checking on him, you know, when it’s been a while since he’s been seen. I found him in the shower.” She laughed in a distressed, pained way. “Does he always shower in boxers? But there he was, on the floor, and he had so much blood all over.”

“He was attacked?” Gina asked. Red and Norma were watching the exchange intently. 

“No,” Gloria said. “He was holding the knife.”

Red heart skipped three beats. “Knife?” Her eyes snapped to her knife lock up, but they were all accounted for.

Gloria nodded. “A pocket knife, the kind that folds? He had- there were so many-” She put her face in her hands and Gina patted her shoulder while looking at Norma for guidance. Norma just nodded at her to let her know she was doing fine. 

“What are you saying?” Red asked.

“I’m so sorry,” Gloria said. “I don’t think he made it. There was too much blood.”

Red’s legs gave up from under her. Norma caught her and tried to make her fall a little less painful. Gina looked at Gloria’s knees, where she had obviously knelt in a puddle of blood. 

CO Donaldson came in and said, “Ladies, lockdown. Back to your bunks. Red, with me.”

Everybody but Red left the kitchen. Donaldson waited until he was alone with Red before he said, “Do you know how your bunkie got the knife?”

“Is my bunkie alive?” 

Donaldson sighed. “He was the last we saw him. Now, do you know?”

“I don’t.”

He looked at her as seriously as he had ever looked at an inmate. “Red, this is real. Max wasn’t trying to get attention. He wasn’t messing around. He had sliced open his arms and legs and stabbed himself twice by the time we got there.”

“That sounds like an attack covered up.”

She didn’t like the way he shook his head. “He was still slicing himself when I got there. I had to wrestle the knife from him. He yelled that he just wanted to die and that he didn’t understand why he couldn’t just die already. This wasn’t a spur of the moment thing. This has probably been a problem for him for a while.”

He took her back to her cube where she sat on her bunk.

The COs entered a while later to do a sweep. They tore apart Max’s bunk in particular but found nothing. They left the mess for Red to clean up. She gently replaced everything Max had, which was still less than normal even after almost a year in prison, in his locker. He had the same bottle of shampoo she had given him months before.

Her boy was so strange. He knew Red would get him anything he wanted, and yet he never asked for a thing. He helped her at every turn and never expected anything back, even joked about it. 

When the dorm was cleared, Nicky came over to Red’s bunk. She had been crying, and Red held out her arms to the girl. Nicky all but fell on top of her. “How could we do this?”

Nicky’s words fell on Red with considerably more force. She pulled Nicky tight and let her own tears fall. “I’m sorry,” she said. There was nothing else she could say. Nicky had seen that there was something wrong with Max while Red had been busy ignoring him, and she had made sure people were helping him.

Red should have done that. Instead, she just cut the boy off completely. Her family had all expressed concerns about Max. His eating, his sleeping, his withdrawn behavior. Each time, she had brushed them off and said Max needed to learn a lesson.

She had no idea how she would justify herself to them after this.

She held Nicky and they cried together for hours. “I’m so sorry, Nicky,” Red said after her tears dried up. 

“He loved you so much,” Nicky said. Red didn’t know if it hurt more than Nicky might have used the past tense because she thought Max was dead, or because she thought Max didn’t love Red anymore. 

“I know.”

“I don't think you do. Red, he- he _loved_ you.”

Red shifted so that she could look at Nicky. “What? You just said that.”

Nicky sighed and wiped tears from her eyes. “Max was _in_ love _with_ you.”

“ _Nicky_.”

“Come _on_ , ma. How could you not see that? He was _devoted_ to you. He would have cut off his own hand if you asked him to. He’d do anything you say with a smile on his face.” Nicky gave her an exasperated look and continued, “Jesus, ma. He didn’t even realize it because he’s never even _considered_ that he could be with someone. _Probably because he wanted to kill himself._ ” 

Nicky sat up suddenly and slapped her forehead. “What?” Red demanded. 

“It was his plan the whole time, Red. He- he planned to die in the explosion he caused. Then he was shackled for months and couldn’t do anything. And _then_ he was shot _18_ times as he _walked into_ the gunfire, and he _lived._ So he was going to off himself when he got to prison, but he met _you._ ” Nicky turned her upper body to look down at Red as she pieced together her thoughts. “And _you_ were probably so different from anyone he’d ever met. You were probably the first adult in his life that made _any_ effort to take care of him. And then- he tried to get the death penalty so that he could die without feeling guilt over leaving you. But that didn’t work. Then you cut him out and made it so he wouldn’t have to feel guilt because- you don’t care.”

Red felt her heart drop. “I promised I would take care of him. I didn't see how bad it was, or I _never_ would have done that to him.”

“Well, lucky for you, you’re going to have a lot of time to think about how to make it up to him. You’ll be 70 when they release him, maybe he’ll look you up.”

Red sat up as well and looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Red, Max isn’t coming back,” Nicky said. She put a hand on Red’s shoulder to try to soften the harsh words. “He’s going to psych. There’s no coming back from this.”

Red shook her head. “He’ll be back. I have to make this right again.”

Before Nicky could make her point more clear, the rest of the family arrived. They spread themselves through the cube and sat in silence. Gina and Norma ran lunch and dinner while Red sat with Nicky. 

“Fuck,” Boo said. 

“Yeah,” Yoga Jones said.

A few minutes later, Aleida and Gloria walked in with plates of nachos. “We’re real sorry,” Aleida said. “We liked him.”

“He’s not dead,” Red said. 

Gloria nodded. “Yeah, but he’s- really hurting.” They made a hasty exit, in time for some of the black girls to come in. 

They brought commissary snacks, and Poussey handed Nicky a bottle of hooch inside a box of saltines. “Max was a real one,” Taystee said. “I’m sorry we wasn’t there for him.”

Red felt that like a slap to the face.

Nicky thanked them graciously. “He liked you guys.”

“I saw him reading a lot of books the last week, in the library. Greek stuff. Must have been hard with his eyes.”

Red’s family looked at her in confusion. “What do you mean, his eyes?” Sister Ingalls said.

Taystee returned their confused looks. “Remember when his head got all smashed in? It fucked up his brain, made his vision blurry. Yall didn’t know? Gave him killer headaches all the time.”

The family looked between themselves. Poussey tried to recover. “Max don’t complain a lot. He’s real chill like that. We only know because Tee asked him every day why he made that face when he was reading. He only told her two days ago.”

Red rubbed her face to try to compose herself. The black women excused themselves.

“What else didn’t we know?” Lorna asked. 

“A lot, apparently,” Boo said. “Max wasn’t exactly an open book.”

“Can we _please_ ,” Red said, “stop talking about him as if he were dead? He’s not dead.”

“We know, ma.” Nicky rubbed Red’s shoulders. “He’s okay.”

Other groups arrived to bring them things. Boo and Nicky split most of the hooch, but Red had a fair share as well. The women dispersed back to their bunks as the hour grew late, though Nicky refused to leave Red’s side. 

As they lay on Red’s bunk, the two women tried to draw as much love from each other as possible. “He’s my boy,” Red said quietly as they drifted to sleep.

“I know.”


	16. Return

Red stared down the COs and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re not taking anything,” she said.

Maxwell and Bell stood their ground as well. “Red, Rogers is not coming back. We need to clear his bunk so someone else can have it.”

“No one else needs it. No one needed it for the 12 years before Max got here, and they won’t need it now.”

“Please don’t make this hard,” Maxwell said. “Get out of the way, Red.”

Red refused again. Bell stepped forward and forced the older woman’s face to the back wall and handcuffed her. She used her forearm to keep Red in place as Maxwell began collecting Max’s scant belongings.

As Red cursed at them in Russian, Healy came into the cube and whistled sharply. “Let her go,” he said. “We won’t be clearing Max’s bunk.” He turned to Red as Bell released her, jerking the handcuffs more than necessary. Red rubbed her wrists and stared at Healy. “Max has been stitched up. It was close for a while, he lost a lot of blood. They’re keeping him on a psych hold, but they’re going to release him back to us once the hold is up. His conditions will be pretty severe. And, he’s going to have a guard posted on him 24 hours a day.”

Maxwell’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”

Healy nodded. “Warden authorized overtime.” He turned back to Red. “I’ll make you a list of what he can and can’t do. The Warden has specifically assigned him to you to watch over him. We’re counting on you, Red.”

As the three guards went to leave, Red asked, “When will he be back?”

“Some wishy-washy psychologists have gotten their hands on him. He’s going to be gone a while, can’t really say how long. But, he’s going to need you when he gets back.”

They left. Red was alone with her thoughts, and all she could think of was Max’s tired, sad voice as he said, “ _Red, I need y_ -”

She didn’t find out what he needed because she had told him she didn’t care what he needs. A more horrible lie, Red had never spoken. She cared so much that even saying the words had left her nauseated. The feeling of nausea returned each time she thought about the way she had seen him slump out of the corner of her eye, as if all his energy had evaporated at her words. 

She sat on Max’s bunk and held his pillow close to her chest. Max would return to her, and she would make everything up to him. He was a special boy and she had to think of how she would help him.

****

Interlude

Piper Chapman sat with her fiancé, Larry Bloom, in their spacious living room. She had just finished a crying spell and Larry rubbed her upper arms bracingly.

“It’s okay, Pipes,” he said. “We’ll get through this. Do you want to finish the Chinese? Or order another book?”

Since Piper had been sentenced to 15 months in prison, she had done everything she could to prepare herself; books, movies, articles, interviews, _Beyond Scared Straight, Lockdown, Lock Up, Locked Up, Locked Up: Raw, Behind Bars: Rookie Year, 60 Days In, Jailbirds_ and every prison documentary on Prime. Larry had once found her at three in the morning, watching a documentary on the New Mexico State Penitentiary riot of 1980. Once she saw a recreation of one inmate beheading another inmate with an ax, and then the real-life ax marks that were still dented into the concrete of the old prison, Piper had lost her shit and asked him if they could run off to Canada. 

Most recently, she had turned to YouTube. She often lost herself in video spirals until she was watching stories on what prison was like in 1905, which freaked her out even more.

She pulled her computer onto her lap and clicked open the most recent video she had watched. “What’s that?” Larry asked as he pointed to a related video, entitled _Mad Max Attempted Suicide, Litchfield 2015._

“Wasn’t that the guy that just got off the murder charge?” she asked.

“Yeah. Click it.”

They spent hours watching videos from Max’s channel. Larry was appalled by the way people treated Max, and Piper found herself crying more than once. 

The video about his suicide attempt really clinched it for Piper. She was not ready for prison. There were too many ways it could go wrong.

The nice young man that narrated the suicide video made her realize how weak she was. Max looked like a tank at his trial, and he had been through so much more in his life than she had in hers, in half the time. 

“Larry,” Piper said. “We need to get P90X.”

“Okay.”

“Right now. Order it. Amazon one-click. Go.”

“Okay, okay, I’m going.” Larry rushed to comply, as he knew that she was prone to tears at the drop of a hat.

****

Red heard that Max had returned while she tried to teach a new girl how to do dishes. She never understood how these kids could hit reproduction age without knowing how to clean a dish. Incompetence probably put half of them in prison.

Her stomach flittered when Norma tapped her on the shoulder and let her know Max had returned. The silent woman had a specific gesture for each member of the family to communicate with Red. For Max, she pressed her fingertips to Red’s heart.

“He’s back?” Red asked. At Norma’s nod, Red dropped the pot she held into the sink and left the kitchen. 

Her journey back to her cube cut short when Healy flagged her down to his office right outside the cafeteria. When she entered, she saw Max in one of the two chairs in front of the desk. He did not look at her or acknowledge her in any way. Healy gestured for her to sit beside Max.

She couldn’t take her eyes off his face, where his jawline had a red, angry wound jaggedly stitched back together. He continued to ignore her.

Healy put his glasses on and looked at the paperwork in front of him. “Okay, Rogers. First, glad to see you’re okay.”

“Makes one of us,” Max said. His voice was tight and angry. 

“Right. Well, some determinations have been made regarding your return to camp. First, you may not go outside. Second, you may not go inside the kitchen. Third, you’re not to have any utensils of any kind. Fourth, you may only leave your cube for meals, restroom facilities, and commissary. Fifth, you will be closely monitored by a CO at all times, as one will be assigned to be at your side constantly. Sixth, you’re required to keep a journal, and you must write at least one page a day which will be reviewed by your assigned psychologist weekly. Seventh, your bunk will be inspected regularly for contraband and weapons. Eighth-”

“Can I go back to psych?” Max said.

“No. Eighth, your monthly commissary maximum has been raised to $500. Ninth, someone has to observe you in the shower at all times. Tenth, willful violation of any of these conditions will result in administrative punishment. Do you have any questions, Rogers?”

“Is this supposed to make me want to kill myself less?” Max asked. “Because it’s not working.”

Healy sighed. “Listen, kid. I don’t know what you’ve gone through or what you’re going through. But you got people here on your side. Red, for example.”

“Heh, example of what? More reasons I want to kill myself?”

Healy looked between the inmates, and he could tell that Red was in considerable distress.

“Whatever’s going on between you two, Rogers, you better get over it. Red is going to be working with the Warden to make sure you’re progressing.”

“Progressing to what?”

It was evident that Healy was exhausting his patience in speaking with Max. “Progressing toward a more positive outlook on life? Toward a fulfilling and rewarding existence?”

“Good fucking luck.”

“ _Watch it_ , Rogers. You may not realize it, but a lot of people here care for you and want you to live. Let them help you.”

“I don’t need nothing from nobody.”

“He’s all yours, Red.” Healy handed Red a printed list of the conditions and told them both to return to their cube.

CO Donaldson followed them, which seemed to cause Max endless irritation. “Jesus, can you at least keep five paces?” Max demanded after Donaldson almost walked into him. 

“Just following orders.”

They made it back to the cube and Max unceremoniously collapsed onto his bunk. Donaldson planted himself right outside the cube like a guard at Buckingham Palace. 

“Max,” Red said from beside his bunk. “Will you talk to me?”

She got the hint when he pulled his blanket over his head, but she was not one to give up. She sat behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’d really like to talk to you, Max.” He did not respond in any noticeable way, though she couldn’t see him roll his eyes. “Okay, I’ll talk. I’m sorry for hurting you, Max. I’m sorry I said I don’t care. That was a lie. I care for you very much. I was so- frightened- during your trial that I had to separate myself from my emotions. I’m sorry that I reacted so poorly to you when you came to find me that day. I was very pleased to see you, please know that. You’re my boy, I could never stay mad at you.”

“If that’s all, I’m going to sleep now.”

Red’s stomach dropped. “Max. I know I was wrong. Please let make it up to you.” After several moments with no response, Red said, “Okay, Max. I have to go to the kitchen now. I’ll be back in a few hours. Send somebody if you need anything.”

“Don’t need nothing from nobody.”

_Red, I need y-_

“Okay, honey. I’ll be back.”

Red returned to the kitchen and set her facial expression into her usual scowl.

“How’s Max?” Gina asked as Red entered. 

“He’s recovering.”

She didn’t know how to say that Max had essentially cut her off and refused to speak with her. It would be pointless to convey the pain she felt when she had tried to engage Max, only to receive silence. Of course, she figured that was better than what she had done to him after his trial, when she had cut off his pleas with scornful, hurtful words.

After a few hours, CO Donaldson found her in the kitchen. He took her arm and pulled her into the walk-in and closed the door behind him. He had been at the prison for Red’s entire sentence, and as far as Officers went, she trusted him. Otherwise, she would have been in a hell of a situation.

“That kid needs you, Red. He needs all of you. You wouldn’t have noticed, but he was better when you were there. As soon as you left, it was like the dark clouds came back and he shut down.”

The bald man hadn’t tried to make Red feel guilt, but she did. It was familiar guilt, one she had felt as a working mother before prison. They needed the money, but she missed out on time with her boys; time she would give anything to have back.

“I don’t know what to do.”

Donaldson shrugged and said, “He’s just trying to protect himself from pain and disappointment. Don’t hurt him, and don’t disappoint him. He’ll come back.

Red nodded, and Donaldson left the walk-in. 

****

Red called her family together in the rec room. They gave off a very uninviting air, and the other women of the prison cleared away from them.

“I need help,” Red said with great difficulty. She rarely asked for help in anything. “Max is hurting and won’t listen to my apologies.”

“You apologized to him?” Nicky asked.

Red gave her a defensive look. “Of course I did.”

“Just, you don’t apologize,” Gina said. “It’s a thing. We know you feel it, but you don’t say the words.”

The other women agreed. “Beside the point,” Red said quietly. “Max is needing our help. I need advice on how to help him.”

For two hours, they discussed Max and his situation. The consensus was that Max would come around given time and understanding.

“Keep being soft with him,” Lorna said to Red, “we won’t judge you.”

Boo laughed. “We’d judge the hell out of you if you were mean to him right now.”

“I talked to him today,” Sister Ingalls said, “he told me he’s irritated at how unkillable he is.”

“Well, it’s lucky for us,” Red said. Max’s disregard for his own life bothered her.

  
Boo shrugged and slapped Mercy’s arm with the back of her hand. “Hey, he probably doesn’t hate us. Let’s go say hi.”

Nicky raised her hands in disbelief. “Yo, what the fuck, Boo? Now isn’t the time for that?”

”I’m not the one that decided to stop supporting the kid.”

Red stared at Boo, but she could not argue. It had been her decision to cut off the boy from the support of his friends and family, leaving him out in the cold.

“I did what I did,” Red said. She crossed her arms and pulled her left ankle onto her right knee. “He is mine to handle how I see fit.”

”You think this was fit?” asked Boo. The rest of the women watched with interest. None of them had agreed with Red, though they had all done as she said. “You think you did right?”

”I’ve already apologized to him. That matter is closed. Now we work on bringing him back to us.”


	17. Special

Red had hoped that Max would pop right back into her life. For her, enough time had passed that she had forgiven the boy for his appalling behavior at his trial, so she was ready to accept Max back. Yet, Max had barely spoken to the rest of the family, let alone her.

He did better with the Spanish and the Blacks. Gloria brought him tea again, each morning for two weeks. The kid did speak with Sister Ingalls occasionally, which pleased Red. The Sister kept an eye on the boy for the rest of the family, and reported back that he was tired all the time, and surly. Not necessarily what Red wanted, but it was something.

*****

Max turned to stare at Maxwell, who was closer than he felt necessary.

“I’m getting commissary,” he said. “What do you think I’m going to do?”

“Caputo said arms reach,” she said. “You’re not dying on my watch.”

“Jesus Christ.”

He went to the window and looked down at Chang. “Good morning,” he said. She didn’t respond. Max handed over his commissary list and Chang started collecting items. 

O’Neill looked over the list as well and said, “Should you have tuna cans? The edges are a little sharp.”

Before Max could reply, Maxwell said, “No, the tuna comes in pouches. Christ, do you pay attention to what goes on in here?”

O’Neill shrugged. “So tuna is okay.”

Max took his stuff and Chang said, “Cost $255.”

“Thanks, Chang,” Max said. He started back to his cube and sorted everything into his locker. He had a collection of spices and condiments, with enough food for at least a week. 

*****

Max had been back for five weeks, and Red reached the end of her rope. There had been little progress, and Max would barely speak to her. He only left the cube to use the restroom. Once a week, he picked up commissary, which was all he ate. He wouldn’t go to the cafeteria, and Red worked very hard to stamp down her hurt feelings. She knew it wasn’t her food he avoided.

According to other women in the dorm, Max worked out for hours at a time. When Donaldson was his guard, the older man would give Max pointers and encouragement.

Red tracked Donaldson down one day when he wasn’t near Max. She stopped the man in the administrative hallway, and Donaldson sighed. “You’re out of bounds, inmate.”

“What do I do for Max?”

“What?”

“I thought he would be over this by now, but he’s still not speaking to me.”

“Why are you asking me?”

“He talks to you more than anyone else.”

Donaldson jerked his head, and she followed him down the hallway to the back of the kitchen. He stopped her by the sink and looked around. 

“I don’t know what to tell you. Rogers is stressed about a lot of things. Why else would he do burpees for six hours a day?”

“What else does he do?”

“Mostly stare at the ceiling or read. Jefferson brings him a book every few days”

“I see.”

Red looked to the kitchen, where Norma and Gina sliced apples.

Donaldson tilted his head and jostled her arm. “What’s up here? I’ve known you for so many years, Red, and I’ve never seen you like this over another inmate.”

Red scoffed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The man gave her a long look. His radio indicated that there was a concern in B Dorm. Donaldson responded on the radio, then looked back to Red. “He’s a good guy. He’s just bad at processing emotions. He responds well to a firm hand. Don’t coddle him.”

*****

The morning Red lost it had started out normal. She got up and started putting on makeup while Donaldson stood outside the cube and peered in occasionally. 

She looked for her eyeliner all around her locker but did not find it. She shook Max and said, “Max, have you seen my eyeliner?”

He opened his eyes and looked at her with an angry, confused expression. “Why the _fuck_ would I have? I look like I give a shit about eyeliner?”

Red was on top of Max in a flash, straddling his hips and holding on to his collar with her left hand. She pinned his wrists above his head with her right hand. A shock of pain flashed through her back, but she ignored that in favor of staring at Max.

Donaldson looked in at the commotion and assessed critically. He decided to let it play out and he pulled his head out of the cube.

Red got close to Max’s face and in a very low voice, she said, “Listen to me, little boy. I _love_ you, you little shit. I’m not going to stand by and let you do this to yourself. I need you to get it _together_.”

Max tried to wiggle himself out from under her, but she held him tightly. “Get off,” he said. 

“ _No._ You’re going to listen to me. I have been as patient as possible, but I am _done_. You’re _mine_. I fucked up, okay? I didn’t take care of you. I failed you, again. And I almost _lost_ you, which would have _ruined_ me. Do you understand that? Because I love the shit out of you.” He struggled against her again, but she pinned him down. He tried to turn his head away, but she followed him to stare into his eyes. “I love you, Max. You’re mine.” His eyes closed and he looked pained, so Red said, “You’re mine, and I _love_ you.”

She could see tears at the corners of his eyes. He tried to curl up, but she kept him flat on his back. “Get off.” His voice was quiet and shaky.

“No. I’m not leaving you.” Red pressed her forehead to his. “I am _not_ going to leave you. If you want to hurt yourself, you’re going to have to go through me. Because I will _die_ before I lose you. Do you understand that?” She shook him for emphasis.

“ _Why_?” he demanded. 

Red didn’t have an answer for that. She didn’t know why she loved Max so much, all she knew was that she did and she would do anything for him. 

“Because I love you, silly.” She kissed both his cheeks. “So you can have one more day to be in your bad mood. When I get back tonight, you’re going to be polite and respectful at worst. I will not tolerate any more disrespect.” She kissed between his eyes. “If you want to be your usual funny, kind, loving self, that’s fine too. I miss that side of you.”

He looked up at her with emotions warring across his face. She put her hands on either side of his face and kissed his forehead again. “Good boy,” she whispered to him. 

Red moved off of his bunk and went back to her makeup. 

When Red left, Max stayed on his bunk for the morning and stared at the ceiling in confusion. Before Donaldson left, he stood beside Max and said, “She’s serious, kid. She cares about you. You’re all she talks about, son. Give her a chance.”

The CO left when Maxwell took up watch.

****

Red returned to the cube and held her breath as she looked down at Max. He was under his blanket and faced the wall. Assuming he was asleep, she quietly went to her locker and set her sweatshirt on her chair.

“Your eyeliner was under your bunk,” Max said. She jumped at his voice but noticed the eyeliner on her locker. There would have been no way Max happened to see it under the bunk unless he purposefully looked.

“Thank you, Max. I look like a zombie.”

“You look fine.”

That was the nicest thing Max had said to her in weeks. She sat behind him on his bunk and put a hand on his shoulder. “How are you, honey?”

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

“Please Max, tell me the truth.” 

He was quiet for a moment, contemplating what she had said. “I haven’t really had a great life.” Red struggled to hold in her disbelieving laugh at his understatement. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Did you decide to- do what you did- because I stopped speaking to you?”

“No. I decided to do it _then_ because you stopped talking to me. I’ve been trying to die for years.”

Red pulled on his shoulder until he faced her. He had a neutral expression on his face. “It won’t happen again. I won’t stop talking to you, and you won’t try to end your life. Is that clear?”

Max tried to roll back to the wall, but Red held him firmly in place. “I can’t make that promise,” he said quietly. She sighed and pulled the blanket down to rub his chest. 

“Max, I know you’re angry, at me and at life. I get that. I know anger, I’m told I have a temper.” She smiled at him. “But I can’t make up for what I did or what your family did in only a day. I need time to try. You have to give me that, honey. You have to give me time.”

He closed his eyes, while Red took his arm in the hand that wasn’t rubbing his chest. After 10 heartbeats of silence, Max said, “Fine.”

Red leaned forward and kissed the side of his face several times. She could tell that he fought back a smile, so she kissed his eyelids as well and watched as he lost the fight. “Time to shower,” she said. He shook his head and tried to roll away again. “Oh no, you’re not getting out of this. Get up.”

She pulled his arm until they were both standing. He grumbled and got his shower stuff while she collected her own. 

They walked to the showers and Red watched Max step into the stall. He turned to look at her. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow until he sighed and stripped down to his boxers and turned on the water. 

“This is ridiculous,” he said as he put soap in his hair and rinsed it quickly. She watched his shoulders as he scrubbed his hair clean.

“I love you, honey,” she said just loud enough to be heard over the water, “but I don’t trust you right now. I’m still worried you might hurt yourself.”

He didn’t say anything as he finished cleaning and turned off the water. She handed him two towels and traded places with him. She finished her shower and took the robe he handed her. 

They returned to the cube to dress. She watched him for a moment with a small frown. He caught her staring and raised an eyebrow, confused. She looked at the new scars all over his body and her heart fell. Red reached out and brushed her fingertips across the stab scar on his abdomen. He looked away from her and closed his eyes.

She moved him around to look at the rest of the scars, many she ran a finger across. He didn’t resist, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Oh, honey,” she said. “I’m so sorry.” He dropped his head and she pulled him in for a hug. “Please let me take care of you. Please let me love you.” She could feel him nod against her shoulder and he gripped the back of her robe in his fists to pull her closer. “Sweet boy. My sweet, sweet boy.”

He relaxed against her and buried his face into her neck. “M’sorry.”

“Shh, shh. I love you. Everything will be okay, my love. I promise. I’m going to make sure everything is okay.” She turned to whisper into his ear as she continued, “If you think the COs have been on your ass, you haven’t seen _anything_ yet. I’m going to be on you like butter on toast.” She rubbed the back of his neck with a strong hand. “I’m not going to fail you again. Do you understand? Hmm?”

“Yes ma’am.”

She smiled and kissed his neck. “Good boy.”

The shiver that she loved ran up his spine, and Red was gratified to know that she still had that effect on him. He did not seem ready to break the hug, and Nicky walked in on them like that.

“I see the fascists are still up Max’s ass,” she said as she glanced at the CO on her way in.

“Watch it,” O’Neill said. 

Nicky waved him off and watched the hug for a moment. “Is he- okay?”

Red nodded. “He’s had a rough few weeks, leave him alone.” 

Nicky raised her hands and sat on the end of Max’s bunk. “Listen, Red, it’s Leanne again.”

Red made a sound of disapproval and told Max to get dressed as she pulled her own clothes together. He dropped the towel from around his waist, and Nicky whistled at his boxers. Red glared at her and made Nicky feel like her bowels would fall out of her ass.

“Sorry. But we should talk.”

Red nodded and looked to Max. “Stay here, honey. I’ll be back soon.”

She left the dorm with Nicky and they went to her office to speak in private. Red sat in her chair and let Nicky sit on the desk. When Nicky waggled her eyebrows, Red almost swore.

“So, how are things with you and Max?”

“Again with this, Nicky?” she asked as she crossed her arms. “Max is hurting and he’s just started speaking to me again.”

“Red, come on. You can’t deny the chemistry there,” Nicky said with her usual smirk.

“Ugh,” Red said as she threw her hands in the air. “He’s half my age. Less. I can’t be in a relationship with someone I’ve-” Red was going to say _spanked_ , but stopped at the last second because Max would be embarrassed by that. Instead, she finished with, “Nearly murdered.”

Nicky rolled her eyes. “That’s freedom talking, Red. You’re in prison. And I will reiterate that he’s hot and in love with you.”

“Tell me about Leanne, Nicky.”

“Fine, but I’m following up on this in a week.”

“I’ll put it on my calendar.”

“So, Leanne. She’s really ratcheted up the insults since Max can’t do anything to her because he’s under 24-hour guard. She’s gotten real cocky. I don’t like it, Red. And her and Pennsatucky have gotten close, so they’re multiplying. The whites are fracturing, more and more of them are going to the religious right and ignoring what you want.”

Red put a hand on Nicky’s knee. “Thank you, kid. I will take care of this.”

“Okay, I’m not a fighter, but I got a wicked left jab.”

Red rolled her eyes. “I have to get Max’s guard lifted. I appreciate your support but I think Max is a little more- persuasive.”

“True, but I think you need to let the dog lick its wounds before you put it back in the ring.”

“What do you mean?”

Nicky looked out the gate and said, “I think you need to build up a little more trust with Max before you use him.”

Red looked down at her knees. “Do you think I use him?”

“Of course you do. Do you think he doesn’t know that? He doesn’t _mind_ being used by you. In fact, I think he likes it. But he like, _just_ tried to kill himself. Maybe give him a few more hugs first?”

“Okay,” Red said. “You’ve twisted my arm. I’ll give him more hugs.”

“And maybe something else?” Red slapped Nicky’s leg. “Maybe just a little finger? Oh god, Max would probably _kill_ to be able to-”

Red held up her hand. “Nicky.”

“He could make you very happy, I’m sure.”

“ _You_ are making me uncomfortable. If you keep this up-”

Nicky hopped off the desk and walked backward out of the office with her hands behind her. “I’m leaving. Goodnight, ma.”

Red nodded to her and looked down at the desktop. She could not deny that she used Max, he was big and vicious and feared. That helped her immensely. But Nicky was right, she didn’t want Max to think that’s all she wanted him around for.

Upon returning to the cube, she found Max on his bunk with an acoustic guitar and a wide smile. When he saw her, his smile fell away and he started to put the guitar to the side. “Sorry, ma’am-”

“No, no, please, continue.” She carefully sat at the end of his bunk. “I’d love to hear you play.”

His face reddened and pulled the guitar back to his lap. His eyebrows drew together and the tip of his tongue poked out the side of his mouth. She found his concentration endearing. 

The boy started playing and she was duly impressed by his skill. It was a country tune, which Red typically didn’t enjoy but the happy look on Max’s face changed her mind. He finished the song and looked at her with a shy expression.

She smiled widely and said, “That was amazing, Max. You taught yourself that?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Amazing,” she said. “Where did the guitar come from?”

“They gave it to me from the old music class.” Red remembered when the prison taught music. Budget cuts had eliminated the class years prior, though she had assumed that they had gotten rid of the instruments. 

Red looked at Max and saw genuine happiness in his eyes for the first time in quite a while. “You really like music, don’t you?”

“I do. It’s something that’s- easy.”

“That’s not easy, honey.”

“Nah, I mean, I dunno. Music lets me be me without asking anything else, you know? I can be angry or happy or sad or tired or whatever. Music don’t care. I know that sounds stupid.”

Red slid closer to him so that her legs crossed over his. “It doesn’t. It sounds like a good outlet for you. How’s your journaling going?”

He rolled his eyes. “Bad. I ain’t good with words.”

“How about you talk to me, and I write the journal?” She watched his face as he thought that over. There was a cute look reflecting Max’s thought process deeply etched on his features, from his slightly raised eyebrows to the way his mouth drew to the side. Red repressed the sudden urge to kiss him. She blinked and wondered where that had come from, and she decided to blame Nicky.

“S’pose that would work,” Max said. 

“Okay, talk to me.”

Max’s eyes widened and he said, “Oh. I don’t know what to say.”

Red rubbed his stomach in small circles while she thought of what to ask. “How do you feel?”

They spoke for half an hour, and Red grabbed his journal. She flipped toward a clean page but slowed down as she got further into the notebook. Max tried to grab it from her when he realized she was reading.

“Are these song lyrics?” she asked. He moved forward again, but she straight-armed him to hold him back. 

“ _Ma’am_ ,” he said in desperation. “Please don’t.”

“These are good,” she said teasingly. He turned red and covered his face with his hands. 

Red looked over the lyrics and smiled. Most of them were about living in the country, drinking, and partying. She also came across some pretty sad songs that seemed to have to do with grieving. Like a lightning flash, Red felt she was intruding on something deeply personal. She flipped to the closest blank page and uncapped the pen. 

“I’m sorry, Max. Let’s write this, hmm?” She glanced at him and saw a sliver of one eye between his fingers. “Come on, honey.”

He groaned and sat up. She smiled at him in encouragement. “You’re mean.”

Her smile widened and she stroked his cheek with her thumb, which he leaned into. “Should I start with that?” She chuckled and looked at the page. “Little weird for you to say you’re not good with words when you can write songs like that.”

****

Nicky popped her head into the cube as Max wrote lyrics in his notebook. “Hey man. Breakfast?” Max held up a granola bar without looking at her. “Nah, man. Come on. Get up, we’re eating.”

It seemed to take an age for Max to pull himself off the bunk and put on a shirt. Nicky didn’t comment on the fact that many of his new scars were visible in the white tank top, and that the women would talk. 

They walked together to the cafeteria with Bell right behind them. “Yo, man, isn’t your birthday soon?” she asked as they walked by Healy’s office.

“July 23rd. What’s the date today?”

“June 29th.”

“Fuck, already?” he said. “Wow.”

“So, three weeks to 19, how do you feel?” 

Max let out a grunt. “I did not plan for this. And birthdays aren’t really great for me.”

Once in the cafeteria, people did stare at Max. Nicky admired the sheer _no shits given_ that Max exuded as he moved to the end of the line. The evangelist girls put their heads together, and cackles followed shortly after. 

Nicky might have tensed, but Bell took her taser out and flipped open the end to reveal the prongs as she stared at Max. 

Max, for his part, ignored them and inspected the tattoo on the back of Nicky’s arm. He seemed to be the only person in the room oblivious to the fact that a group of girls laughed at him a few tables over. Nicky saw Red look into the cafeteria for a moment, scan the crowd, and then step back into the kitchen.

Pennsatucky, who had taken up leadership of the group, shouted, “Hey, man-girl, try harder next time!”

Nicky felt her shoulders draw back, and while many people in the room laughed, Pennsatucky was shouted down by the majority. Max ignored the whole situation as he reached the service line. Gina handed him a tray with two cold cut sandwiches, sliced vegetables, and four cookies.

He sat with Nicky, Boo, Sister Ingalls, Yoga Jones, Trish, Mercy, and Lorna. Bell followed like a shadow.

Yoga leaned across the table to him. “I’m sorry, Max. You don’t deserve that.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Deserve what? My cookie? Yes, I do.” Bell snorted behind him. He bit the cookie for emphasis. Someone pushed him over to sit next to him at the end of the table, and he saw Red with a mug of coffee, which she slid to him without a word.

The woman took her black hair cap off and sighed. “Betty is bitching out on me,” she said. 

Betty, the freezer, was Red’s nemesis. She often complained of her in detail. Mostly she just wanted as many COs as possible to hear about the freezer going out so that the planned sabotage would be more convincing.

Max squeezed Red’s forearm in condolence and then returned to his sandwich. 

Leanne stood and cupped her mouth as she said, “So when you two fuck, who’s on top?” 

“I have to piss,” Bell said. “Red, keep an eye on Rogers, I’ll be back in two minutes.” She walked out of the cafeteria. CO O’Neill followed her out.

Red stood up and walked over to Leanne through the silent cafeteria. Red looked down at the skinny blonde girl and said, “I think you’ll find that I’m always on top.” She pinched the nerve in the girl’s hand between the thumb and forefinger, which caused her to squeal and jerk. “And I’m tired of your voice, little girl. I will break a finger for every word I hear you say about me.”

She walked back to the kitchen and leaned on the counter to take a moment. She counted to 10, then said the alphabet. Norma put her hand on Red’s lower back and caught her eye.

“Thanks, Norma,” Red said. “I’m fine.” Norma patted and then gently squeezed Red’s shoulder. “Okay, you got me, I’m a little angry.” Norma tapped over Red’s heart and then tilted her head with a raised eyebrow. When Red looked at her, she tapped over her own heart. “Of course I love him.”

Norma shook her head and then raised both eyebrows. “No, Norma, I am not fucking him.” Norma tilted her head the other way. “I’m not going to talk about this right now.” Norma smiled knowingly and went back to cleaning up breakfast. 

Red looked for something to do to take her mind off what was happening. She decided on dishes and cursing, a solid past time.

That evening, Red found Max in her bunk with her blanket wrapped around him. “Comfortable?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am.”

She rolled her eyes, sat beside him, and put her hand on his cheek. “You missed this blanket, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

Amused by his antics Red let him stay where he was. She took her book to his bunk and laid down with her back against his pillows. Every so often, he made a contented sound and rolled around. 

Maxwell looked into the cube with a raised eyebrow. “Good god, kid. Are you on drugs?”

“This is the softest blanket ever,” Max said from somewhere under the fabric. “Ain’t never had a soft blanket.”

“Aw, shit.” Maxwell went back to standing outside the cube. 

Red tried to focus on her book, but all she could think of was tiny Max in a doghouse with a bleeding back and not even a blanket to cover him. The image turned her stomach and she closed the book. With a sigh, Red moved over to her bunk and shook Max’s shoulder, “Move over, honey.”

He moved toward the wall so she could lay next to him. With little difficulty, she pulled him up to right under her chin. “You’re ridiculous, little boy.”

His face emerged from the blanket to press into her chest. “Love you,” he whispered so quietly she almost missed it.

“Why?” she asked. The young man didn’t move for several moments, until he tilted his head back to look at her in confusion. “Why do you love me? I’ve been _horrible_ to you. I’ve hurt you. I’ve promised you so many times that I would take care of you and protect you, and I _haven’t._ ”

Max tried to think of what to say. Conveying his feelings into spoken words did not usually go well for him. “I, I dunno. It’s just that- well, just- when you’re being nice to me, you’re really nice.”

The explanation would have made Red feel better, if it weren’t for the fact that it strongly implied that there were times that she was _really mean_ to him. Which she could not deny, seeing as he had numerous scars directly related to her mean phases. 

“Nice Red,” she muttered. One eyebrow slid up his forehead and she gave him a sad smile. “After I hurt your head, they sent you back hopped up on pain meds. You would only let me hold you at night because I was Nice Red. During the day, I was Mean Red.”

His mouth opened for a moment before he closed his and his eyes dropped. “I’m sorry. I- that’s so weird.”

“It was because before the head injury, I cuddled you at night with your nightmares, but I was mean to you during the day.”

“No, I- you ain’t the first person I done that to,” he said. His eyes met hers for a long moment before he continued, “My oldest brother, Freedom, used to help Daddy and my brothers with hurting me, but when they was gone he would try to bring me food and he would tell me everythin would be okay.” 

“How could he let them- hurt you- at the sheriff’s office?”

Max shook his head and pressed his eyes closed. She could tell that whatever he was about to say was very painful for him, so she kissed his forehead. “He was in Afghanistan,” he said eventually. Red’s heart sank. “It was a grenade, thrown right into the tent. He jumped on it to save the rest of his squad, so Freedom was the only casualty.”

“Oh, little lion, I’m sorry, honey.” Unable to resist, Red pulled her boy against her in a tight hug. His body was tense and she could feel his pent up tears in his hot eyes as she brushed a hand over his face. “Let it out, Max. Stop holding that in. I’m here, you’re safe.”

He gave in and started crying, but it was silent. Tears soaked her white shirt as he tried to get as close as possible to her. Both of her hands found their way to his back to rub circles. “Sorry,” whispered Max.

“No, shh, shh, it’s okay. You need to feel these emotions, honey. It’s time to process them. Good boy.” She pressed another kiss to his forehead. “You’re such a good boy. I’m so proud of you for telling me about this.”

Max pressed into her and took deep breaths to calm himself. When his breathing evened out, he looked into her eyes and said, “This is why I love and trust you. Because you’re gentle with me. Nobody’s ever really been gentle with me before.” 

She smiled at him. “I have a confession, Max. I’m not usually this gentle.”

The smile that split his face warmed her heart. “That’s why I feel special.”

“You’re very special.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have 13 other OITNB stories I’ve been writing, but for some reason I keep thinking of new ones to write. Like my brain is now stuck on a variation of this story, but as an SVU crossover. It won’t stop.


	18. Birthday

Max sat in  Healy’s office with Red three days before his birthday. The man had asked them there without explanation. He finished sending an email before he turned to the two inmates.

“Alright, Max. We’ve decided to lift the 24-hour guard based on positive reports from your psychiatrist and Red. Most of the other restrictions will remain in place, except for the daily bunk searches. We’re going to charge Red with ensuring you don’t have any contraband in your bunk.”

Red nodded while Max continued to stare. “Can I have utensils? Because I am very tired of sandwiches,” Max said.

“No,” answered  Healy. “We will reconsider at a later date. But, I will lift your bunk confinement. You may not go outside, and you may not go into the kitchen. You shouldn’t be in the kitchen anyway since you’re not assigned there, but I will be clear.” He looked at Red and continued, “He may not enter the kitchen. If he goes into the kitchen, you will face discipline. Does that make sense?”

“Yes,” Red answered. It did not make sense to Red.

“Good. Max, you continue heeding Red. She’s a good influence for you.”

Red put her hand on the back of Max’s neck. “Did you hear that, Max? I’m a good influence.” He chucked until she squeezed his neck.

“That’s all I had for you both. Have a good day, Max.” Understanding the dismissal, Max looked to Red before he stood and left.

Max made his way to the library to pick up a new book while Red remained with  Healy. He greeted Taystee and she walked over and slapped his head.

“Ow?”

“I ain’t hit you while you was still a mess, but you up and around now. Don’t scare me like that, boy.”

“Sorry,” he said. She pulled him into a hug then ruffled his hair as she pushed him away.

Taystee left him to his browsing, but she kept an eye on him. Nicky found him as he browsed the non-fiction section. A tool belt around her hips showed she had slipped her work assignment. “What’s up, Max?”

She pretended to look up at the light fixtures as he watched her. “I’m fine. What are you doing?”

"Officially, I’m checking the fluorescents.  Unofficially, I’m checking on you.”

They spoke for a few minutes about his previous weeks, and Max continued to look at the book spines. COs Bell and Maxwell entered the library together like a bull into a china shop.

“Rogers!” Bell barked. She grabbed him and forced him to his knees before she said, “Thought you could slip away, eh? Not on my watch. SHU it is.”

Maxwell grabbed Nicky’s arm. “You’re out of bounds, inmate. You can go to SHU as well.”

Both Max and Nicky tried to argue, but Bell tased Max to shut him up.

As the COs pushed them down the hall, Red and  Healy walked out of his office and stared. “What the hell did you manage to get into in 15 minutes?” Red demanded of Max.

“I was getting a book?” Max said. He slowed down, and Bell jabbed him with the taser again. “Fuck will you stop that? Where did you go to taser school?”

Healy  stepped in front of them and said, “What the hell is going on?”

“This one slipped his guard. This one was out of bounds. They’re going to SHU.”

Healy shook his head as Red glared at the two young people. They cowered from her withering stare. Max tried to dip behind Nicky, but his larger frame foiled him.

“I lifted Max’s guard and his confinement. He’s allowed to be in the library. As for Nichols, she’s on a work assignment. Neither of them are going to SHU," explained  Healy.

The COs let them go and went into  Healy’s office to argue over his decision. Red stared at the two young inmates with a look of disapproval. “Nicky, go to my cube after work. Max, go back to my cube. I’ll speak to you both this evening.”

They scurried away and Red returned to the kitchen.

Max sat on his bunk and waited for Nicky to turn up. He didn’t like the look on Red’s face when she had told them to wait in her cube. She seemed angry, and Max got that weird feeling in his stomach Nicky had once told him was anxiety.

Nicky arrived a few hours later and sat next to him. “We didn’t do anything wrong,” Nicky said. “Not sure what got Red’s panties in a twist.” She dropped on his bunk next to him.

Max shrugged. “You know how she feels about us going to SHU.”

“Well, yeah, we’ve practically got a timeshare situation. But, we didn’t do anything wrong.”

They continued to talk until Red appeared in the cube. She didn’t say anything to them; she changed from her kitchen clothes to her lounge clothes. Max and Nicky both sat and stared anywhere but at Red.

After a long two minutes, Red stood in front of them with her arms crossed. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”

Nicky said, “Those COs were out of line!”

Red only raised an eyebrow at her before she looked at Max. He only said, “I’m sorry,” and then looked down at his legs.

“Oh, you two are so different.” Red sat on her bunk and watched their faces. Nicky looked indignant, but Max looked fearful. “Why don’t I want you going to SHU?”

Nicky rolled her eyes. The girl usually ramped up her insolence in the face of punishment. “Because it puts a dent in your ability to torment us?”

Max’s eyes widened while Red’s narrowed. “No, little girl. It’s because it’s not good for you. And, yes, I need my children nearby to know that they are safe. I won’t apologize for that. Max has pushed me to the edge of sanity on this.” Max curled into a tighter ball. “So listen very carefully. If either one of you goes to SHU, I will punish both of you. You better be on your best behavior.”

Max covered his face. He was combative and Nicky was antagonistic. Between the two of them, SHU would be inevitable.

“Nicky, go back to your bunk for the rest of the night.” She waited until the young woman had walked out, and then she looked to Max. As  quietly  as she could, Red said, “I’m disappointed, Max.” As expected, Max deflated further. “I hope you haven’t forgotten the discussion we had the last time you returned from SHU?”

Max’s face lost most of its color as he shook his head. “No ma’am.”

“Good.” She moved to sit next to him and whisper in his ear, “Don’t you forget, for a single moment, that I care about you. You, more than anybody else in here, could be taken out of here forever. Don’t think I don’t know that you’re here against classification. Another trip to SHU and they might send you to a different prison. That would hurt me, a lot, Max.”

He nodded but continued to stare at his knees. Red ran a hand through his hair and he relaxed against his will. She said, “I know you didn’t really do anything wrong. But you have to remember that in prison, that doesn’t always matter.” She patted his head. “Why don’t you go to sleep, honey. You look tired.”

Max started to slide into a sleeping position as Red stood up. She kissed his forehead and pinched his cheek, which he tried to shake off. She kissed him again and then went to Nicky’s cube.

She found her girl on her bunk. Mercy was doing her eyeliner at her locker and smiled at Red when she entered. Red nodded to her. “Take a walk, Mercy.”

The girl popped up and left with her eyeliner, and Red squeezed her shoulder as she passed. Nicky felt defensive, as she straightened up to look at Red. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Red sat beside her with a thoughtful expression. “I know that, silly. But it was so close. And I can’t lose you.” She pulled Nicky to her side while the girl’s indignance faded. “You and Max are both so willing to take on the world, but you can’t take on the prison, Nicky. I only have you here for a few more years, and I would like to keep you around.”

“You like me,” Nicky teased.

“I do. I want you close by.”

For Nicky, whose own mother had never wanted her around, those words were a soothing balm over a very old wound. She pressed closer into Red’s side, which the older woman accommodated.

“I love you, Mommy,” Nicky whispered.

“I love you, sweet girl.”

****

The evening after the near-SHU experience, Red sat on Max’s bunk and held his hand. “I want to ask you something, Max,” she said. “Please answer  honestly .” He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “That day when you came to my office. You were saying that you need something. What was it?”

Max took his hand back from her and closed himself off. “Nothing. I don’t need anything from anyone.”

The guilty, anxious feeling returned to Red’s stomach. “Max, please. You were in my office and you said Red, I need- What did you need, Max?”

“Nothing.”

She took his jaw in her left hand and pulled until he faced her. “Max. You’ve never said those words to me. It would mean a lot to me if you told me what you were going to say.”

Max moved further from her and said, “I was going to say, Red, I need you, I’m scared. But I don’t need your help. I don’t need anything from anyone.”

Red tried to take his hand again, but he stood up and walked toward the back of the cube. She stood as well and stopped a few feet away. “Max, I know that I hurt you, but I’m here for you now. Please let me in, let me help you. I promise, Max, that you can trust me. Do you know how happy I am every time I look at you? How proud I am every time you open up to me? How scared I am when you’re hurt?”

Max shook his head. “I tried to ask for you once. I’ve never felt more pain in my life.” He dodged her arms again. “No. I have never felt more pain in my life, and I have been in a lot of pain. My entire family rejected me. From the time I could walk I had to do everything, get everything, provide everything for myself.  When you held me while my skull was fractured, even after you had hurt me, even after you had said so many mean things to me, when you held me and told me that you would protect me, I trusted you. I don’t trust easily, at all. I was hurting, and scared, and I had no idea what to do. All I could think of was that I wanted the pain to stop, finally, for once in my life. And you told me you don’t care.”

Red felt his words worse than a physical blow. “I’m so sorry, Max. I’m sorry. I care, I care so much. I will not betray you again,” she said. Red took a step forward and tried to take his hands. He flattened against the wall and tried to dodge her. “Max, listen to me.” She pinned his shoulders to the wall. “I need you.”

He looked confused, but he stopped struggling against her. “What?”

She nodded. “I need you. You make this place that much less miserable. Every day that I get to see you, get to hold you, that’s a good day. I love you. I need your hugs and your smiles and your cuddles. Need them, Max. I need you. Needing someone is not a weakness, Max. Needing help is not a weakness.”

He shook his head. “I don’t need-”

She sighed and dropped her forehead to his chest. “Max, please. Please.”

“I can’t,” Max said. “It hurt.” She looked back into his eyes and saw pain there, and knowing she had been the cause almost made her break down.

Red nodded. “I won’t rush you. I love you, Max. I’ll be here for you when you’re ready. I’m always here for you.” She pulled him into a hug and held him tight. “You can ask for me anytime.”

****

Red sat down next to Nicky in the chapel. “Max hates me.”

Nicky looked at her with a disbelieving look. “What?” Red explained the situation and Nicky shook her head. “No, ma, he doesn’t hate you. He’s hurt. He wants to not be upset and hurt, but he’s really scared you’ll hurt him again if he trusts you too much. Give him reasons to trust you. He’ll come around. God, that kid is so starved for affection that he’d kill a man for you in exchange for a hug.”

“I hurt him.”

“You were hurt, Red. And you were scared. You lashed out at  probably  the most vulnerable person possible, but you had no way to know.” Nicky smoothed down Red’s hair. “That kid really wants your love, Red. But he’s scared because you’ve- well, you’ve made some mistakes with him. But what are a few broken bones between friends?”

“My babies were 11, 9, and 8 when I came here. I don’t know how to interact with an 18-year-old boy.”

Nicky laughed. “Alright, Red was never 18, confirmed.”

Red shoved her arm. “I was 18 in Soviet Russia. Max is 18 and there’s smartphones now that connect to the internet without wires.”

That did nothing to prevent Nicky from laughing. “Just listen to him. Call him out when he’s an idiot. Be kind to him. You’re a very kind woman, ma. Think back to before prison. Imagine if a little baby Max wandered into your market, all bruised and broken. What would you do?”

The imagery made Red panic. She saw herself in her market, with a little broken Max. She would have held him and rocked him and fed him treats and loved him and made sure to take care of him.

Red returned to her cube and looked down at Max as he slept. She brushed his hair off his forehead and smiled.

****

Max woke up to someone shaking his shoulder, which was a dangerous undertaking. Expecting to see Red when he opened his eyes, he instead saw Caputo. Without a word, the man motioned for Max to follow him. Max was only in boxers and a tank top, but Caputo dragged him out of the cube before he could dress.

They went to Caputo’s office, where the Executive Assistant to the Warden and a huge man in all black stood to one side, and  Healy on the other.

The woman looked to Caputo in exasperation. “He couldn’t put on pants, Joe?”

“You said now, Fig.”

Natalie Figueroa rolled her eyes, but turned to Max. “Mr. Rogers, the Warden has a special assignment for you.” She looked out the window for a second, as if she were hyping herself up for the next part. " Healy, tell him."

Healy tensed and looked from Fig to Max. “Have you heard of scared straight?”

Max raised an eyebrow. "Is this about lesbians?"

Caputo snorted while Fig turned to look out the window with shaking shoulders.

“What?”  Healy asked. “No.  It’s about taking poorly-behaved kids and bringing them into prison to scare them into being well-behaved .”

“Isn’t that why I’m here?” asked Max. “Like, verbatim?”

Healy stared at him. “No.”

“I get it though. Prison is so scary no one would want to come here.”

“Good. The Warden wants to put together a program under that concept. He wants you to design and run the program.”

The large man was Edward Camponelli, the head of Litchfield’s CERT. He would help run the program and provide any necessary people.

Fig gave Max broad license in the design, and many privileges to assist, including limited supervised access to a tablet to research. Other than that, Max would be on his own to establish the program. He had a few months before implementation, but the concept caught his imagination.

At the end of the meeting, Max exited the office and headed back to his bunk. Women whistled and catcalled as he passed, but Max ignored them. He passed Norma, and he knew that meant that Red would soon be aware of his mid-morning stroll.

Max put on pants and shoes as he entered his cube. Nicky met him to go to breakfast, and they walked to the cafeteria together. “Max, I need a favor,” she said as they entered the hallway to the cafeteria. “I need you to distract Red.”

“With- my charm?” Max asked. “I’m goin to say now this already sounds like a bad idea.”

“Max, please.” She stopped him by grabbing his arm. “It’s important. What is family for?”

Max rolled his eyes and flailed his arms. “Fine. But if I get in trouble I will blame you.”

“Deal. I have to steal, like, five oranges.”

“What.”

****

Max walked into Red’s office and found her with Norma. “Hi!” Max said. “Interesting news.”

“Does it involve you wandering the halls in your underwear?”

Max looked to Norma and said, “How do you even tell her that with no talking?”

Norma shrugged.

“What is it, Max? We’re in the middle of breakfast.”

“The Warden asked me to make a program for kids to come and learn what prison is like so they stop breaking the law. We’ll  require  a kitchen.”

She looked at him over her glasses. “You’re in charge of something? Is that smart?”

Red regretted the words as soon as she saw his face. The joke had fallen flat, and she wanted to apologize right away.

Max frowned, hurt by that. “I can do things, you know,” he said. She opened her mouth to say something, but he continued forward. “Anyway, if you don’t want to help, I can talk to the kitchen down the hill. I got a few months to plan before I present it to the Warden. Let me know.”

He walked back out of the cafeteria and found Nicky giving oranges to Boo in exchange for a dildo made with a glove. Stopping for a moment to process what he saw, Max shook his head and then continued up the stairs.

“Prison is so fucking weird.”

****

Max looked up from the letter on his locker when Red walked into the cube. He stood up and backed into the wall when she walked right at him. She grabbed his jaw in her left hand and glared at him.

“Ma’am?” he said.

She swatted at his backside several times and he tried to jump out of the way, but she held him in place. “You helped Nicky steal from me.” Max’s eyes widened and he shook his head. She sent several more smacks at him. “Oh,  really? Do you think I’m an idiot? Gina watched Nicky walk out with the fruit, you stupid boy.”

Red watched the boy shake and refuse to meet her eyes. She slapped him, hard, across the face. “If you’re not retarded, I’m the Queen of fucking England.” With that, she turned and left to find Nicky.

Max let out a huge breath and rested his hands on his knees. Trusting Nicky had been a risk, but of course, the woman had screwed up. The burning spot on his cheek irritated him not because of the pain, but because he knew that Red was angry. Very angry.

Red tracked Nicky down in the chapel. She was in a compromising position with Lorna, who let out a short scream when she saw the angry chef.

“Red, what the hell?” Nicky said as she pulled away from Lorna. Both young women redressed and stared at her with wide eyes.

“You stole from me,” Red said to Nicky. “And you involved Max in your little plot.”

“It was just some oranges, Red. I’ll repay you next week.”

Red grabbed Nicky by the hair and said, “You selfish brat. If you wanted oranges, you could have asked me. When have I ever denied you anything?”

Nicky dropped her gaze down and to the left.

****

Red walked Nicky out of her office with an arm around the younger woman’s shoulders. “You’ve made things very uncomfortable for me, girl. I said something mean to Max, and before I could apologize, Gina told me what you two had done. Then I hit him and called him retarded. Now he’s  probably  spent all day feeling bad, and I still have to punish him.”

Nicky stopped and took Red’s arm in a tight grip. “Please don’t. He’s really fragile and I pressured him into helping me. He really didn’t want to do it. I really just took advantage of knowing he was going to go talk to you.”

Red didn’t respond, but she took Nicky’s hand and continued back to their dorm. The outspoken girl went to her cube, and Red turned into her own. Max was in his bunk faced to the wall and under his blanket. She watched him for several moments with a smile. He was taller than his blanket and curled up to be completely covered. She was always amused by how sweet he looked when he slept.

After she had stood over him for several moments, Red sat behind the bend in his knees and put a hand on his arm.

He jerked and looked at her with big eyes. “Hi, honey,” she said in the softest voice she could manage. “Sorry to wake you, I  just  wanted to check on you.”

She would have liked to see love and trust in his eyes, but all she saw was confusion and fear. “I’m fine, ma’am,” he said. Unconvinced, Red pulled his blanket down so she could rub his chest.

“Turn your head,” she said.  Reluctantly, Max turned his head to the side and showed her the light bruise over his cheek. Red leaned across him and kissed the bruise. “Don’t try to fool me ever again, Max. I’ll always know.” He nodded to her and she smiled. “Good boy. Go back to sleep now. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Max couldn’t sleep. He stared at the wall and listened to every movement Red made. After an hour, she sat behind him again. A gentle hand rubbed his arm.

“I almost forgot, honey,” she said in a whisper. “You asked for my help. Of course I’ll help you.” She leaned closer to him and continued, “I’m sorry I was mean about it.”

Red couldn’t believe less than one day after she begged him to trust her, he had done so, and she had still managed to fuck it up.

“Do you think I’m retarded?” Max asked. He sounded so unsure that Red realized had a lot of anxiety about the subject. She wondered if he worried about being stupid, or her perceiving him as stupid.

“No, honey. You’re not. I’m sorry.” He flipped around and hugged her around the middle with his whole body. She stroked his hair and smiled down at him. “ I think you’re the sweetest, smartest, loveliest boy on the planet.

****

Max woke up the morning of his birthday and stretched his spine as best he could. The bunks were not made for someone of his size, and he had half a mind to sleep on the floor.

He sat up and headed to the shower to begin his day. After a longer-than-normal shower, Max dressed and returned to his cube. He stopped short when he saw his whole family in the cube staring at him with smiles.

“What is happening?” he asked.

“It’s your birthday!” Nicky said. “You’re 19!”

He looked at Red, Gina, Norma, and Mercy in confusion. “Who’s cooking?”

Red waved off his concern. “Gloria and her girls took over the kitchen for the day. We’re going to spend the day with you.”

“Oh.” Max broke into a huge smile. “Thanks, guys.”

He sat next to Red on her bunk, and he pressed against her without noticing.

“We wanted to get you a gift,” Sister Ingalls said. “But you don’t really like many things. So we got you set up for a haircut with Sophia, and came up with another surprise for you.”

“Oh, sweet,” Max said. He smiled at the women gathered around him. “Thanks, guys.”

For a few hours, they sat around and joked, told stories, and teased each other. Nicky watched Max and Red throughout the morning.  When Boo told a story about her first night in jail, where the cops had shoved her in a holding cell with a bunch of men, Max laughed hard and grabbed Red’s hand.

Red chuckled and squeezed his hand. Nicky continued observing as the morning progressed. The Sister went into detail on some of her adventures, including those not condoned by the Church.

During that story, Red continued to hold Max’s hand, and she pressed it over her heart. He made no attempt to retrieve his hand as Yoga told about her first night in her first prison.

“What about you, Red?” Lorna asked.

“Litchfield was different when I arrived,” Red said. “Women were respectful and minded their business. My first night here was uneventful. Although, I did meet the woman that would give me the idea of how to spend my time in prison."  
  
“How bout you, Max?” Tricia asked. “What was your first night in jail like?”

“I don’t really remember. I was really drunk. The deputies had been looking for me for a few days, so I went and found them after just tearing up. Met the deputies head-on as they drove down Main Street, fired a shotgun at the front of their truck. Well, long story short, I  was arrested, and then that was that. After that, all my memories blur together.”

Lorna said, “Aren’t they getting the charges dropped?”

“That’s a lot to go over.  My cousin is coming up with a defense if the appeal to have the charges dropped and sentence vacated falls through.”

“Aren’t you on video doing all that stuff though?” asked Boo.

“Yeah, for my entertainment channel that has a disclaimer that everything is fake. And I had a filmmaking permit from the state.”

Red let go of Max’s hand and put an arm around his shoulders. Nicky watched him lean into her more and he put his hand on her knee.

Everyone continued talking until Gina and Tricia made a run to the commissary for snacks. They came back and spread the haul. Red slapped Max’s hand when he tried to open a bag of chips. “I’ll make you something,” she said.

“Yes ma’am,” he said with a smile. Red got up and put something together for Max, which she handed him before she sat beside him again.

“We’ll have a spread for dinner,” Red said as she patted Max’s leg.

Nicky wondered if the two realized how often they touched each other.

That evening, Red and the other women all gathered again in Red’s cube and brought various foods to share. Red wouldn’t let Max get anything for himself as she continued to dote on him.

After the evening meal, the rest of the family left and Red turned to Max. “Get on your bunk, on your stomach,” she said.

Max paused for only one moment before he did as she said. His heart pounded as he left himself in such a vulnerable position. He could hear Red moving behind him, and he jumped when she pulled his shirt up and then all the way off. He waited with slow breaths as nothing happened for several moments.

Red climbed onto the bunk and straddled his hips. Without hesitation, she started kneading his back muscles with determination. “What the- Holy-“ Max said.

“Hush.  Just  relax."

Red worked his back from the waistband of his pants to his neck. His muscles softened like clay as they warmed up. She observed all the scars on his back, wondered what they were from and how much they weighed on him. He had a tattoo that a burn had left unrecognizable.

Red continued until she had worked out every knot she could find. When she finished, she scratched his back for a few moments. She leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "Did you have a good birthday?"

"Yes ma'am."

She tapped his nose and shifted to get off his bunk. Max struggled to keep his eyes open, so Red rubbed his cheek. "Go to sleep, Max. Sweet dreams."  
  
He didn't need to be told twice as his eyes fluttered closed and his breathing deepened.


	19. Scary Movie

The day after the birthday party, Red put an arm across Max’s shoulders as they sat in the front row for movie night. He smiled at her and tilted his head to bump into hers.

She turned to him and said, "I hope you enjoy your surprise."

He raised an eyebrow over his confused smile, but then the movie started. 

Max sat up straighter. “No way,” he said. “This is my favorite movie!”

Red smiled at him. She had convinced Healy to find out what Max's favorite film was and to have it played. She didn't know what the movie was, but Max seemed over the moon. In his excitement, he grabbed her arm and held it close.

Years of watching romantic comedies did not prepare Red for the spectacle of Max’s favorite movie. It had sex, violence, and drugs all over the place. The fact that the prison agreed surprised Red. Then again, she noticed that anytime she mentioned Max, she usually got what she asked for. She resolved to ask for more meat options while casually saying Max ate more when there was meat on the menu.

Max was exuberant throughout the whole film. When it finished, they walked back to their cube together. Max kissed her cheek and said, "Thanks, Red."

“That is your favorite movie?”

“Well, one of them. I have a lot of favorites.”

“What is it about that one?” Red asked as she changed into pajamas.

Max paused in the middle of taking his shirt off, just as he uncovered his abdomen. Red caught herself staring and looked away. “My cousin used to do everything he could to make me feel better as a kid. He told me about the Spartans, and the agoge, and that I wasn't going to break, I was goin to turn into a fearless warrior.”

“Well, you’re certainly fearless,” Red said. “I’d like to meet this cousin. He seems like a good kid.” Max finished changing as Red kept here eyes on the wall.

“He’s studyin at UC Berkeley. He’s goin to try to visit between summer classes and fall classes. But it might not happen because the feds are watching him. He only got out of a charge because he did not take part in anything I did, he was just a documentarian.”

Max sat on his bunk and took a book off his locker. Red sat on her own bunk. “Do you ever resent your situation? Not being able to finish school, being in prison, missing out on your youth?”

Max looked at her with a disturbed expression. “Not until you said that.”

Red laughed. “Really, Max. Talk to me.”

“Is what it is, ma’am. I’ll be at least 43 when I get out, if I don’t get time added. That’s a lot of life I’m missin out on, but I chose this.”

Red went to twist into the bunk, but her back seared with sudden pain. “Ooh!”

In a flash, Max was by her side and lifted her feet into her bunk. He fixed her blanket around her and then sat on the end of her bunk with her feet in his lap. He began rubbing her feet with strong, relentless hands. She groaned and tried to take her foot back, overwhelmed by the feeling. He held firm and continued.

“Max, Jesus, what the fuck. Oh, holy shit.”

“That’s extremely unladylike, ma’am.”

“I will cut you. When you finish.”

****

Red sat in her chair next to her locker and stared at her books. Her day had been long, annoying, and tiresome. A new batch of girls had arrived, as they did every other week. It was three girls, all young and nervous. Red had seen them at dinner that evening, and she had a thought.

Max entered the cube from wherever he had been, and Red looked up to him. “How much do you have on your books?”

“No idea. Like ten thousand, though.”

She took a moment to process that. She stood, approached him, and put a hand on his chest. “Can I get a favor from you?” Red hated asking for favors, especially such large ones. She preferred to be the one doing favors for people, as she didn’t like owing anyone.

“Of course.”

Red nodded and handed him a commissary form from her locker. “Sign this,” she said. 

It was $200 of essential items, including toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, and toilet paper.

Max raised an eyebrow at her. He went toward her locker with her and he signed the form. Red's locker was well-stocked and she wanted for nothing, given her contraband smuggling operation.

Red took the paper from him. “Thank you, honey. I had an idea.” He looked to her, unsure if she would be okay if he asked what the idea was. She smiled at him and patted his cheek. “We’re going to start welcoming the new girls that come here. We’ll give them all the things they need for their first few days.”

“That’s very… kind of you.”

She chose to ignore his disbelieving tone. “My first night here, the black women brought the new black girl a basket. I never really thought about it, but that’s pretty powerful.”

“So you want to bring the white girls-“

“No. All the new girls. I want them all to know who I am as soon as they get here. And I want them to know who you are.”

“Okay,” Max said. He started to pull his tank top over his head.

“What are you doing?” Red asked. “You have to go get the shit.”

“I was going to shower and-“

“No. Put your shirt on and get your ass to commissary.”

Max put the tank top back on and left the cube with the order form. Red sat again and began a letter to Vasily.

Her boy had not replied to her letters in months, but she continued writing twice a week, as she had since her first day of imprisonment. Since her divorce, her sons had taken their father’s side and stopped speaking to her. She had not had a visitor or letter since. She missed hearing about her boys and their lives. It had kept her connected to her life outside, her market, and her community. They told her about their love lives, their jobs, and their successes as young adults. Being cut off from them made her feel more alone than she had ever felt. That was one of the reasons she kept Max so close.

The last thing Red heard from Vasily was that he and his girlfriend were trying to get pregnant. She didn’t even know if they had done so, if she was going to be a babushka or not. For all she knew, his girlfriend could be in labor at that moment. Red regretted a lot, but that her life had come to the point where her own son wouldn’t tell her if he was a father or not was her biggest regret of all.

She had gradually stopped calling them, as they never answered. It cost her $5 just to have her call to connect to their voicemail. It seemed one of them continued to fill her books, as she always had money for commissary. It certainly wasn’t her forty-cent-an-hour prison job buying all the tuna she could eat.

Red finished the letter and signed it before she slid the paper into an envelope. She sealed the envelope and put it inside a book for safekeeping until she could get it mailed. 

Max returned with a box. “What do you want me to do with this?”

Something in his tone caught her off guard. Red looked at him over her glasses. “Why do you sound like someone just kicked your puppy?”

Max looked away from her for several moments before he turned back to her. “Ma’am, where would you like this?” 

She stood and took the box from him and set it on her bunk. She took three of the shower baskets and filled them. Red handed them to Max and said, “Bring these to the new girls.”

Without a word, Max only nodded and left. Red looked to her clock and realized it was an acceptable time to prepare for bed. She changed into sleep clothes and sat on her bunk with a book. Max was gone for a while, but he returned before lights out.

He changed and then stretched out on his bunk. 

“Max?”

“Huh?”

“What the fuck is wrong?”

He rolled to face her. “Nothing. Sorry.”

“Come here.” Max stood and went to Red's side, where he knelt by her bunk. Red stroked his cheek, amused by the stubble she felt. “You did good. Thank you.”

His face broke into a smile and she leaned over to kiss his forehead. Max’s smile widened and he kissed her cheek in return. “Goodnight,” he said. 

Red patted his cheek and then tugged his ear. “Goodnight, little lion.” 

****

October

Red stirred the corn and listened as Gina barked at Mercy over the potatoes. A word from the chef brought their argument to heel quickly. Mercy was tense because her date was only six weeks away, and Boo had been making snide comments. Red resolved to keep a close eye on Boo, in case she tried anything again. The last time Boo stole a date had been a nightmare.

Yoga poked her head into the kitchen and said, “Red, they took Nicky to SHU.”

Red’s head snapped up to meet Yoga’s eyes. “What did she do?”

The thin woman grimaced. “She told Officer Ford to go fuck himself.”

“Good god.”

****

Red entered her cube and found Max sitting on top of his bunk. He crossed his legs and his hands balled together, which he often did when he was nervous or preparing himself mentally. She sat next to him and put a hand on his leg.

“You remember what I said would happen if Nicky went to SHU?” she asked softly. He nodded and she pulled him down to her side and held him tight. “Okay. You won’t have any commissary this week and you will not go to movie night.” When he did not relax or move at all, Red said, “Do you understand, Max?”

Max stiffened. “I-”

Realizing what he was thinking, Red brushed the back of her fingers across his cheek. “I said I would punish you, Max, but I did not say what it would be. This is what I have decided.”

“I understand, ma’am.”

“Good boy.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. Red smiled and kissed the back of his head. 

Red was silent for a moment until she said, “My children abandoned me. They won’t visit, they won’t write, they won’t take my calls. I hurt them, badly. It was my fault. But now you and Nicky are mine, and I have family here. Losing one of you and not being able to control that is- very scary. I fear that more than anything. So you two better keep each other in line.”

She continued to hold him tightly. She thought of Nicky in SHU and her breath caught in her chest. Max relaxed against her and sighed while she stroked his hair. 

“I’m glad I have you,” Max said. “I appreciate you, ma’am. Thank you for carin about me.”

“Somebody has to, little lion.”

He rolled and smiled up at her. “Glad it’s you.”

****

Red closed the door to the salon, the sound of which caught Sophia’s attention. The salon door usually only closed after hours, so she assumed someone was about the attack her. She was not in the mood for an ambush, so when she turned and saw only Red, she felt relief, but confusion. They had just had a hair appointment two weeks prior, and Red was consistent about showing up once a month for a trim, no matter how many times Sophia tried to convince the woman to let her color her hair. “What can I do for you?”

The chef took a bag out of her jacket and handed it to the taller woman, who glanced inside and then looked back to Red.

“I have some questions," the chef said calmly.

With the bag of makeup, snacks, and toiletries set to the side, Sophia said, “Must be a hell of a question.”

“What is it like to change genders?” Red asked without preamble. She sat down in one of the chairs, eyes firmly locked on Sophia.

“Oh, I was right,” Sophia said. “I assume this has to do with Max?” At Red’s nod, the stylist sat in the empty chair and faced her. “Can you be more specific?”

“What is Max going through? How does it happen? What can I do to help him?”

Sophia let out a breath. “Wow. Okay. Now, I’m different than Max and he’s had different experiences. But, Max is transgender. He was born with female anatomy but identifies as a male. He’s used testosterone to masculinize his appearance, and he’s had surgery to remove his breast tissue. Based on what little I know about Max’s home life, he probably had a really miserable upbringing. For how it happens, well. I don’t know how it happens, it just does. How can you help him? You’re doing it, girl. You treat him like a man and don’t make any big deal about his transition.”

Red thought about what the other woman had said. “What do you know of the effects of testosterone? What have they done for him?”

She wondered what the look on Sophia’s face meant. “He obviously has a lot more muscles and he’s bigger than he would be otherwise. Not to mention the facial hair. It also would increase his sex drive, make his skin rougher, and- it would have enlarged his clitoris.” 

Red blinked. “What?”

“Yeah, it does that,” Sophia said. “Usually up to an inch or so, from what I understand.”

“Wow.”

“I know, boys always get all the fun,” Sophia said with a tut. “If my research is correct, he’s probably been on hormones for several years at least.”

Red looked at the nails on her right hand. “He tried to kill himself. Do you think that’s related?”

“Not to actually being transgender, but because of the way people treated him about it. He was- maliciously mistreated. He’s been miserable for a long time, and he sees a lot more misery in front of him.”

“Can you think of anything I could do to help him?”

Sophia leaned forward and put a hand on Red’s knee. “That kid needs a lot of love. A lot of support. A lot of acceptance. You’re very- harsh. Tone that down with him. Let him be vulnerable with you.”

“I do that,” Red said with an edge to her voice.

Sophia nodded. “I know you treat him better than most. But he’s very special, Red, and he really likes you. Every time I do his hair, he asks if I think you’ll like it.” Sophia smirked at her. Red examined the counter closely. “He adores you. You have a lot of sway over how he’s going to feel, which I hope you take seriously. I like that kid.”

Red looked back at the woman. “I do too. But he’s so- interesting.”

Sophia laughed as she thought about that. “He is. It’s cute, though, how much he likes you. The way he watches for you in the cafeteria, or looks at you when you’re nearby.”

“How does he look at me?”

The taller woman stood up to organize her brushes. “I had a puppy when I was a kid. That dog followed me everywhere. Tried to go to school with me. Max looks at you like that puppy used to look at me. Excited when we were together, anxious when I had to leave.”

****

Red sat next to Max as he wrote song lyrics. Even his foot jumping up and down didn’t bother her. “What are you working on, honey?”

“Just a song.”

She nodded and put a hand on his knee. “Can I bring something up to you, Max?”

“Of course.”

“You stop eating my food,” Red said. He looked at her and his hand froze over his page. “When you’re mad at me, or when I’m mad at you. You stop eating my food. You don’t come to the cafeteria. Why?”

Max looked down at the paper and shrugged. “Don’t want to end up eating ground glass.”

Red ran her hand through his hair and then grabbed a handful at the back of his head to gently pull his face up. “I would never do that to you, Max. Not after everything you’ve been through.” She pulled him closer and whispered in his ear. “No matter how angry I am, how much you have messed up, no matter what, my food will always be safe for you.”

She kissed the side of his head, and he turned his upper body to curl into her. **** 

Red observed the cutesy desserts that Claudette prepared for dinner that evening. They were cookies with a marshmallow decorated like a jack-o-lantern. Claudette spent the entire day perfecting the little things. Red appreciated how adamant Claudette was about providing what little holiday cheer the kitchen could. She did enjoy watching the women react to Claudette’s creations with glee. Red would never admit that out loud, though. 

Halloween was an interesting time in prison. Many of the women did their best to dress up, using various desperate measures to create recognizable costumes. Some of them were outright humorous in their failure to capture their intended portrayal.

Red’s head jerked to the entrance to the kitchen when she heard Max’s voice draw out a long, “Ma’am!”

He had a playful, happy look on his face, and Red couldn’t help but smile. She walked toward him and stopped in front of him. 

“Can I help you, boy?”

He smirked and looked around. When he determined no CO was paying any attention, he pulled a bag out of his pocket and handed it to her. Red looked at it and saw it was full of candies. Her heart skipped a beat when she recognized the wrappers from her childhood. Max had gotten her Russian candy.

She slipped the bag in her pocket and cupped his cheek with her right hand. He smiled widely.

“Thank you, Max. I’ll see you for dinner?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He left and Red went back to work. 

When dinner rolled around, Red sat by Max with the rest of her family. Mercy and Tricia had done their best to dress as Sexy Cat and Sexy Mouse, since Max had brought up a popular movie to them the week before.

“Who’s going to the movie tonight?” Lorna asked. 

“Max and I,” Red said without hesitation.

Sister shivered and shook her head. “No, thank you. I don’t want nightmares.”

“Aw, it can’t be that scary,” Lorna assured the Nun. “They only show us edited movies anyway. They haven’t shown a horror movie before, though.”

Red snorted. “I’ll bet any of you girls $10 in commissary that Max loves horror movies.”

Everyone looked to Max, who froze with his fork halfway to his mouth. “I might,” he said. 

Red laughed and patted his shoulder. “You got somebody snowed.”

The rest of the dinner consisted of Lorna planning out who would bring what snacks, who would sit where, and what to do if the movie was too scary.

Red enjoyed her dinner and then went back to the kitchen to direct clean up. 

Several of her family went to the common room to help set up chairs. Max went to shower before the film and then sat in the first row to hold their seats. The rest of the family arrived and sat around him. Red was the last of them to arrive. She sat in the aisle seat, directly to Max’s right. 

Lorna sat to Max’s left and scooted her chair toward him. The room quieted as the lights went out. 

Red had never been a fan of scary movies. Her boys had loved them, and she ended up comforting them when they had nightmares. One of her fondest memories of Yuri was when he had been eight and watched a movie without permission at a friend’s house. The boy snuck out of his room to cling to Red on the couch for half the night. 

The movie started and it took less than 30 seconds for Red to remember why she did not like horror films.

She grabbed Max’s arm and pulled him close. Lorna tried to yank him back to her from the other side. Red chose to ignore Max’s giggle.

Each minute of the movie proved more horrifying than the last. Red turned her head away when a demon attacked the main character. She saw eight of the black women huddled onto three chairs, with Suzanne on top shouting for Taystee.

A few of the Spanish mamis whispered prayers each time something scary happened.

Max had the time of his life during the movie. He had never seen it and had no idea what to expect. Each jump scare caused both Red and Lorna to yank on him. He tried in vain to eat his Skittles. One particularly alarming scene sent the bag right out of his hand.

At the climax of the movie, Red said something in Russian and held Max so tightly his fingers went numb. Lorna buried her face in Max’s shoulder. Max laughed and watched as the protagonist sent the demon back to hell, or whatever she had been trying to do. Max mostly just liked the scares.

As the credits rolled, Max and Flaca shushed everybody and made them all sit down. They waited in anxious silence until the screen went dark. 

Then the demon’s face appeared on the screen, along with a loud screech. 

After the women calmed down, many beelined for the door.

Red faced Max with a fierce expression. “You little shit.”

“What did I do?”

“I don’t know, but I’m blaming you for this.”

“For what?”

“There’s going to be no peace in the dorm tonight. Your fault.”

“I just peacefully sat here, mindin my own business-”

“Shut up. Walk me back to the dorm.”

Max laughed and led the group back to A-Dorm. The women split to their bunks and the chatter filled the room with anxious excitement. They talked and laughed through the evening, with Mercy explaining the movie in detail to Sister, who had spent the entire time on her bunk reading.

Red sat on her bunk and pulled Max down to sit beside her. She pulled the bag of candy out of her pocket, opened it, and dumped a few into her hand. She picked one out and handed it to Max. 

“These were my favorite when I was a girl.”

“Thanks, ma’am!” Max said. 

She shared with him as she enjoyed the candies she had known as a child. She had sold them at her market but never partook. Her boys often tried to pocket them when she wasn’t looking, but she could always tell by the looks on their faces.

Red enjoyed the time with Max, and she told him a few stories about Russia and the things she got up to in school. He listened, genuinely interested in her life. He asked questions when foreign concepts didn’t make sense to him, but never insulted her upbringing or made it seem inferior, which Red appreciated. She had encountered many Americans that insulted anything Russian. Red was proud of her childhood, her family, and the traditions they shared.

The dorm residents lined up for count before lights out. They exchanged candy by throwing it across the dorm when the CO’s had their backs turned. CO Ford called a recount.

With all official business concluded, everyone entered their cubes and prepared for sleep.

Red changed into her nightclothes and climbed into her bunk. Max stripped to his boxers and started to get into his bunk.

“Oh no, boy. Get over here.” Max turned to look at Red with a raised eyebrow. She lifted her blanket and pointed to the small space next to her. He stared at her for a moment before he carefully slid onto the sliver of bunk available. She put the blanket over him and wrapped her arm over him. “I’m not getting up to get you off the floor if you have a nightmare,” Red explained.

“I’m not going to have a nightmare.”

“Do you recall your first weeks here? I barely slept with all your yelling.”

Max sighed. “That wasn’t from a horror movie.”

“Your life qualifies as a horror movie.”

He chuckled. “Got me there.” He thought for a few moments, then said, “Ma’am?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you scared?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Oh, good. That would make the long, dark walk to the kitchen tomorrow really awful.”

She smacked his hip. “You little shit.”

He laughed as silently as he could.

Max did not have a nightmare, but at least three other women in the dorm did, and Red held him very close the entire night.

****

Max walked to medical with CO Maxwell. She had been decent to him during his cube confinement, and she told him stories about the previous prison she worked in. Max thought she was pretty okay, for a CO.

He sat on the table as the doctor looked over the chart. “Decent weight,” Doctor Huggins said. “But you’re still not where you should be.”

Max looked down at himself. He had filled out quite a bit since he arrived, with his constant workouts and Red’s insistence on feeding him triple portions. As he looked, he could still see his ribs clearly, and his hips bones, narrow as they were, jutted out.

“I can’t eat anymore,” Max said. “I’m at my limit for calorie intake.”

The doctor clicked his tongue and set his clipboard down. “I’m going to limit your exercise for ninety days. The minimum I can allow is thirty minutes three times a week.”

“That is-”

“That is what you’re getting. And, I’m going to have Healy tell the COs and your bunkie. I know I can’t trust you to follow this on your own.”

“I don’t have a job, you won’t let me work out, and reading is getting really painful. What am I supposed to do?”

The doctor shrugged. “I have to get you up to a BMI of at least twenty, per the Warden. Take it up with him.”

“What’s my BMI now?”

“Eighteen.”

“Hell. How much do I have to gain?”

“Sixteen pounds.”

“That’s almost a fucking car tire.”

The doctor crossed his arms. “Eat more, exercise less. Gain the weight, and I stop bothering you. So, three times a week for thirty minutes. Maximum, Rogers. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings after breakfast for thirty minutes.”

“Fine, whatever.”

****

Max sat on his bunk with the guitar and plucked a tune. It was evening, and he expected Red back any minute. 

He switched songs and thought about what he would do without workouts.

Red walked in and took off her chef's jacket, which she placed in her laundry bag. She turned in her tank top and looked at him.

“I heard a little boy got himself into trouble today.”

Panic filled Max. The last thing he wanted was for Red to be mad at him. “What? No, I didn’t.” 

She smirked and put her t-shirt on. “Oh? Something about needing to eat more and stop working out?”

Max sighed. “That doctor is an idiot.”

Red pulled a wrapped sandwich out of her pocket and shoved it into his hands. “Eat this. I can’t believe I’m feeding you all this time and you’re still so skinny. Like a starved cat.”

“I am not,” he said. He knew he was, but he did not like it pointed out.

“No?”

Red pushed him down on the bunk and raised his shirt. He laughed and tried to bat her hands away, but she ghosted her fingers across his ribs. “Ma’am!”

“Not skinny? I can count your bones.” 

She let him up and he caught his breath. 

“Okay, maybe I am a little thin.”

“You’re so broad,” she said. “You’re going to be huge once you fill in all the way.”

“Why won’t anyone let me have my awkward gangly teenager phase?”

Red snorted and went to her locker. “No starved cats on my watch.”

****

Max walked into Caputo’s office. The man looked at Max over his glasses. “Can I help you, inmate?”

“I need a favor.”

“Now there’s a word ripe with potential for me going to prison.”

Max closed the door and sat down. He lifted his left leg and rested his ankle on his knee. 

“I need you to get me a doll.”

“What the fuck, inmate?” Caputo had been asked for many things during his tenure as Captain of the Guard, but a doll was high on the list of weird things.

“A doll. The one from the movie we watched.”

“What do you plan to do with this _doll_?”

“Scare the shit out of B-Dorm.”

“I’m listening.”

Max explained his idea to Caputo, who leaned back and listened. When Max finished, the man shook his mouse to wake up his desktop. He typed something and tilted his head back to look through his glasses at the screen.

“It’s ninety fucking dollars.”

“Call my cousin, he’ll send you money.”

Caputo considered Max for a moment. The idea was technically illegal, as smuggling _anything_ to an inmate could get him sent to prison. However, he felt the Warden would overlook the transgression and he desperately wanted to see the fallout of the prank.“I want to be there.”

“Deal.”

****

Three days after the scary movie, Max snuck out of A-Dorm to go to B-Dorm. He had the doll wrapped in a sweatshirt to hide it from prying eyes.

When Max entered B-Dorm, he had to decide where to place the doll for maximum effect. 

He decided on the wall of the tall bunk walls toward the center of the room. The way he positioned it, the doll was between Taystee in the low bunks and Cindy in the high bunks. He was about to leave when Caputo came out of the CO bubble and handed him a flashlight. He motioned something, and Max nodded.

Max took the flashlight and set it on the ground with the beam illuminating the doll from below.

He exited the dorm and stood right outside the door. On cue, Caputo flickered the lights. Max had agreed that if pressed, he was to say Caputo had nothing to do with it. That suited him fine.

Someone in the dorm complained about the lights, but then said, “What the hell? Yo! What the _fuck_ is that?”

Within ten seconds, the dorm filled with screams. Taystee said, “Fucking Max, yall!”

“I’m’a kill that motherfucker,” Watson said. Max turned and ran.

As he turned to make it into A-Dorm, Max saw Red exiting. He frantically waved her in and pushed her toward their cube. 

“Max, what the fuck-”

“Sh! They’re coming! Get on your bunk.” Max panicked about where to go because he had not thought that through. He slid Red to the wall and climbed in next to her. “Sleep,” Max said to her. He and Red both closed their eyes just as Cindy and Poussey made it to the dorm. Several other B-Dorm inhabitants followed soon after.

“Rogers!” Cindy yelled. “We know you in here, Rogers.”

Several A-Dorm residents shouted at them to be quiet, but the group ignored them.

They found Max, took his pillow off his bunk, and hit him. Red sat up, and the group invading the cube froze. “Oh shit,” Cindy said to Taystee. “You hit Red.”

Half the black girls fled back to their own dorm. They did not sign up to mess with Red.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Red demanded. She wondered where the COs were.

“Your boy,” Taystee said as she held up the terrifying doll, “put this in our dorm. Do you know what it’s like to wake up to this staring at you?”

Red looked from the doll to Max, and without a second thought, she pushed Max out of the bunk. He landed on the floor, which startled him. 

“Get him,” Red said. She tossed a pillow to Cindy, and another to Poussey. Suzanne took the second pillow from Max’s bunk, and the four women proceeded to wallop him with pillows. Red watched, amused, as Max laughed uncontrollably through the beating.

“And then,” he said between gasps for air and Taystee hitting his head, “Poussey yelled _she’s going to kill us_.” He dissolved into laughter again. 

Tricia came into the bunk and said, “What’s- holy shit, what is that?”

Tricia recoiled from the doll that Suzanne held.

Red looked at her daughter. “Max thinks he’s hilarious.”

Tricia raised her hands as a physical barrier between herself and the weirdness she saw in front of her. “That thing isn’t staying here is it?”

Taystee, exhausted from swinging the pillow, said, “Well it ain’t staying with us.”

Max struggled to his feet and took the doll. “I have to give it to the COs,” he said. 

“I ain’t believe that for a second,” Cindy said.

“Yeah,” Poussey added. “Probably going to pull some more bullshit.”

Max walked the doll to the CO bubble and handed it to Bell. He returned to his cube and said, “It’s gone. You’re all safe.”

They gave him dirty looks as they filed out of the cube. “This ain’t over,” Cindy warned.

Max sat on Red’s bunk when they were alone. Red pinched his thigh. “You brat.”

“What did I do?”

“You crave way too much excitement.”

He laughed and patted her knee. “I hear that a lot.”

Red collected her pillows and laid down again. Max laid beside her and snuggled close to her as she wrapped an arm around him. She whispered in his ear, “If that thing pops up around me, I’ll light your ass on fire.”

Max chuckled and replied, “That’s fair.”


	20. She Definitely Wasn't Ready

Max pulled on his shoes and listened as Red told him about piroshkis. He enjoyed it when she spoke of the things she was fond of because she became animated and could talk for hours. He wasn’t sure how they got on the topic at four in the morning, but he was not about to derail her while she was so happy.

Red kissed the top of his head when she left for the kitchen, and he smiled as she vanished around the corner.

Max usually started his day with a workout, so he was not sure what to do instead.

Yoga Jones wandered into his cube. She was an early riser that often spent her mornings alone, contemplating existence.

“Hi, Max,” she said. She kept her voice low because of sleeping women. “I heard you’re not supposed to exercise anymore. That’s a real bummer. I see you working out a lot. I wanted to know if you wanted to do yoga with me in the morning?”

“Uh, I’m not sure that’s really for me.”

She smiled. “Well, it’s great exercise, but nobody believes it is, so they probably won’t stop you.”

Max grinned when he realized what she meant. “I see.”

“I start at about 4:30 every day. Want to give it a try?”

He considered her for a few moments. “I guess I won’t die.”

“What a fun way to make decisions,” Yoga said with a big smile as she linked arms with Max and led him out of the cube.

After an hour of yoga, Max was sore in many places. “What the fuck,” he said to the ceiling as he laid on the floor.

Yoga Jones laughed and rolled up her mat. “If you work out the same muscle groups all the time, you neglect others. Yoga has a way of finding neglected ones.”

Max thanks Yoga Jones and cleaned up before he went for a shower. He did his best to hide that he was so sore and each movement felt like fire.

****

After collecting his tray from Gina, Max sat down with the Golden Girls, who stared at him in confusion.

“Hello, ladies,” Max said.

“Hello?” the one with the octopus tattoo said.

Max smiled and ignored the palpable tension. “I’m putting together a program to scare little kids into bein good. Yall ladies look like you could make some bad little kids cry. Wanna help?”

They looked between each other and smirked. “We’re in.”

Max had a long conversation with them over breakfast, and he enjoyed their company. Red came over toward the end of the meal and sat down beside Max. She greeted the older women but felt confused about why Max was with them.

Red had been in the prison with Frieda Berlin for many years but had never spent much time with the woman. In truth, Frieda had never been a people person until she joined the Golden Girls. By then she and Red were comfortably distant.

At the end of breakfast, Max went to Caputo’s office to present his initial plan. Max's ideas impressed the Captain, and he agreed to run them up the ladder. After a brief conversation that included the hilarity of the doll, Caputo let Max go.

Between breakfast and lunch, Max went back to his cube to read. Red had given him a book about childhood emotional neglect and asked him to read it through. He smiled at the thought of Red requesting that the Russian Mafia send her such books. He could only imagine the look on the face of the guy sent to the bookstore. And the face of the clerk that sold him the book.

The woman vowed to get him as connected to his emotions as possible. Considering that Red held her emotions tight to her chest outside of the cube, Max found it endearing.

The book kept his attention enough that Lorna surprised him by popping into the cube. “Hi Max!” she said in her chipper voice. “Nicky is back! I brought her over right before I picked up some newbies, three of them.”

“Thanks, Lorna!” said Max. “I’ll head over sometime before dinner.”

She smiled as she vanished from the cube.

****

Max rolled off the bunk, put on his shoes, and grabbed some things out of his locker. On his way to the rooms, Max greeted several women through the hallways and nodded to a few COs.

He made it to the rooms and first found the new black girl, Janae Watson. He gave her a bag and let her know it was from Red. She glared at him with suspicion but accepted the items with minimal reluctance.

Max continued to the room where Anita and Miss Rosa lived. He found Nicky in the bunk above Anita, and she hopped down to hug him as soon as he entered. He assumed the tighter than usual squeeze was to apologize to him for going to SHU.

The other girl was on the bottom bunk to his left, and Nicky introduced her. “This is Daya Diaz, her Mom is Aleida Diaz in Spanish Harlem.” Max smiled at her, but the girl only stared at him. New inmates often provided him with frosty receptions, given his appearance. He and Nicky both turned to the woman that sat on the bunk above Miss Rosa. “This is Chapman, Piper. She’s terrified and she studied for prison.”

“Hello,” Max said to both the new inmates. “I’m Max Rogers, I’m in the Suburbs.” He pulled out two more bags of essentials and handed them to the new inmates. Nicky raised her hands and looked around.

“What am I? Chopped liver?”

Max gave her a raised eyebrow. “You will be after Red gets hold of you.” He went back to the new inmates and said, “These are from Red, with her regards. Your first couple days will be hard. I reckon yall want to listen more than you talk till you get the swing of things. Things have a way of bein- extra in prison.”

After he talked with Anita and Miss Rosa for a few moments, Max made his way to the cafeteria for lunch.

****

Anita sighed and watched as Chapman looked at everything in the bag that Max had handed her.

"If it hadn't been for my heart attack, I could be the one making these power moves."

"Power moves?" Chapman asked.

"Oh, yeah. Slinging around all that commissary? Takes clout. That's forty bucks right there. How easy do you think it is to part with that when most women here are making eleven cents an hour?"

"Eleven cents?"

"Yeah. Then you got people like me, Miss Rosa, and Max. We don't have jobs, we get maintenance pay. Means they give us just enough money on the books for essentials. _Enough_ my ass, though. Last I checked it's enough only if I choose to shower less than once a week."

Nicky hopped back onto her bunk to grab her radio. "DeMarco, no way you would have been the top. You still would have had to fight Red for it."

"Hey, Red may be smart and cunning, but I got chops too, you know?"

"Red would wipe the floor with you."

Anita laughed. "I've known her since her first night in here, kid. She wasn't always the baddest bitch around."

It occurred to Nicky that DeMarco could be a great source for gathering stories about Red. She considered what to pick up at commissary to sway the older woman to speak.

****

Red greeted Max with a tray and a warm smile when he walked directly to the serving line. “Thanks, ma’am.”

He sat with the Golden Girls again, since their earlier conversation had been so intriguing.

Nicky walked the new girl into the cafeteria. She saw Max with the Golden Girls in the back corner and she gave it a few seconds of thought before she directed Chapman to the line. “Alright, here you can see the Whites, the Spanish, the Blacks, the Golden Girls, and the Others. _Others_ will be Asians, Natives, you know, people that don’t fit in the main groups. You associate in your group.”

“Is- Rogers- with the Golden Girls?”

“No,” Nicky said. She sighed to delay an explanation she had not yet formed. “Max is a special case. He does whatever he wants.”

They got their food and sat down with Yoga and Sister Ingalls. “Hello,” the nun said. “Who is this?”

“Chapman. She’s got 15 months.”

The two older women muttered assurances and Yoga gave the mandala speech she gave new inmates. Nicky tuned it out in favor of relishing the culinary delight of Red’s cooking. Compared to SHU, it was exceptional.

The chef herself walked over and sat next to Sister Ingalls. She had a cup of coffee and a tired look in her eyes. Nicky noticed that Red glanced at Max as she sipped the coffee. Without a word, Red passed out yogurt cups to Nicky, Sister, and Yoga. She paused as she looked at Chapman, then slid one to her as well. The blonde woman thanked her.

"Thank you, Mommy," Nicky said. Red rolled her eyes at her girl.

Boo dropped down into the seat by Nicky and leaned toward Red.

“Hey, got one for me?” Boo asked.

Red scowled at her. “You got what I asked you for?”

“It’s- complicated,” Boo said.

Once irritated, Red usually doubled down on her hardass-ness, and Nicky watched it unfold in front of her. “Well then, it's complicated. Treats come when I sleep better.”

Boo raised her hands in surrender and left the table. Red continued to stare at Max. “He bothering you?” Nicky asked.

“I don’t know if I like him speaking with them. He’s been asking to kill the skinheads again,” Red said. Nicky felt Chapman tense next to her. “But he seems happy.”

“Why would the Golden Girls make a difference in him wanting to kill somebody?”

Red looked at Nicky and said, “Don’t be stupid, girl. They’re all killers. Even Jimmy, before she lost her marbles.”

Nicky realized the women had been there since the beginning of time, so their crimes must have been horrible. It made her think twice about making fun of the older women of the prison, for sure.

Yoga Jones asked Chapman what she had done. “I moved a suitcase full of cash through an airport for a drug dealer.”

Red snorted and leaned forward on the bench to stretch her back. She had heard some pretty weird crimes in her time, but what Chapman had done would not rank in her top 300 for the level of toughness. After so many years in prison, Red could tell that Chapman was going to be a soft one.

“The sister chained herself to a flagpole,” Nicky said.

Sister Ingalls rolled her eyes and scoffed. “It was trespassing at a nuclear facility. Really, Nichols, you could do with a little activism in your life.”

“Please, Sister, I advocate for myself all the time. They just send me to SHU for it.”

Nicky outwardly smirked when Red glared at her, but inside her bowels turned to liquid. She wasn’t sure what compelled her to anger the older woman even more than she already was.

“Are you okay, Chapman?” Yoga asked.

“The food here is disgusting.”

Nicky’s liquid bowels risked ejecting from her body. Yoga’s eyes widened while Sister leaned back as if to physically disassociate from Chapman. Nicky risked a glance at Red and she regretted it. The woman looked so angry that Nicky wanted to hide. Chapman didn’t seem to understand what she had done. Nicky’s jaw had frozen, or she would have told her.

Red turned her head slightly and said, “Max.”

The man was by Red’s side in an instant, from across the cafeteria. “Yes ma’am?” Nicky wasn’t sure how he’d heard her like that.

“Go to my office, honey.”

“Yes ma’am.” He trailed a hand across Red’s shoulders as he passed.

She waited until he was all the way in her office before she rose to her feet and stood behind the Sister and Yoga. She leaned forward between them to Chapman and said, “You don’t like the food? It’s no problem. Have a nice day, Chapman.”

Red turned and walked toward her office.

Nicky let out the breath she’d been holding. “That was an epic fuck up, Chapman.”

“What did I do?”

“Red runs the kitchen,” Yoga said.

Sister added, “She takes it very seriously, it’s her passion. It can get ugly.”

Nicky had always been one to cut to the chase. That’s why she had told her mother she hated her when she was 13, and that’s why she said, “Red thought Max insulted her cooking once, because one time he was worried she would think he had insulted her food, so he asked to go to fucking SHU instead of facing her anger. When he came back, she cracked his skull and broke his arm.”

Chapman had been pretty white when she came to the prison, but sitting there at the table, she looked sickly pale.

“She did that to him? I saw him on a Dateline special. Oh my god, I’m going to die. I’m going to die because I’m an idiot.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Nicky said, “it won’t be Red that does you in. Max does the dirty work. He’ll probably hate you now.”

Chapman started crying.

****

Red walked into her office and found Max on her desk with a cup of coffee. He looked at her with a tilted head and raised an eyebrow. He looked like a cute little puppy. “Everything all right, ma’am?”

She sat in her chair and said, “You are way over your ma’am limit for the hour, kid. But I’ll forgive that because you’re the good one.” Red leaned back in the chair and looked up at him. “She insulted my food.”

“What.”

With a nod, Red continued, “Said it’s disgusting.”

Max hopped off the desk and moved to her chair to wrap his arms around her from behind. He rested his head on her shoulder and said, “Can I kill this one?”

Red laughed and fisted a hand in his hair. “No, you lunatic. I like you, but I swear, you’re too much. I do want to hurt her, though.”

“I can break her arm.”

“Why don’t you let me think of the ideas, hmm?” Red patted his hand. She appreciated his enthusiasm, but it also worried her. Her boy was like a rescued feral cat; he may stick around for the food and the head pats, but he would never let anyone trim his claws. “This needs subtlety, and that is not something you are great with.”

“So if I don’t get to kill her, what did you need me for?” Max asked. She twisted her head up to kiss his cheek.

“Because I was angry and I needed a hug.”

“Oh! I am so good at this!” Max tightened his arms around her and continued, “But also, killing. I am good at killing. Say the word.”

“Ugh, you.” Red sniffed him and then tilted her head back to look at his face. “Why do you smell like apples?”

“Because sometimes I bathe?” Max said in confusion.

Red shook her head. “Your soap smells like man things, not apples.” She turned the chair until he was in front of her again. “Are you engaging with a woman here?”

Max took a step back. “Would it bother you if I were?”

The woman shrugged. “No, of course not. But I would like to know things. I don’t like being in the dark. As she stared at him, she saw a defiant tilt to his chin and his arms crossed. Red reached forward and yanked on his shirt until he dropped to his knees in front of her. “Are you hiding something from me?”

“No, I’m not,” he said.

Red grabbed his ear, twisted, and then pulled his face close to hers. “Are you lying to me, Max?”

“No, ma’am, I’m not lying,” Max said. She moved even closer to him, and he closed his eyes and dropped his face.

When Max’s ear twisted tighter, he braced himself by pushing his hands against Red’s knees. She said, “Are you fucking somebody and lying to me about it? Look at me.”

The vice grip on his ear stopped him from shaking his head. He met her eyes and said, “I’m not seeing anyone, ma’am, and I wouldn’t lie to you.”

After several moments, she released him and he fell back against the wall. Red rolled her chair over to her desk and put on her glasses to pretend she was reading.

She could hear Max breathing. After the sound settled to a more stable rhythm, Max said, “Why don’t you trust me, ma’am?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Max. Of course I trust you.” She picked up a pen to cross out a few lines on a random paper she found.

“It’s just, it seems like you don’t. I said I wasn’t with nobody and that I wasn’t lyin. You say you don’t care if I’m with somebody, but that I was lyin. So either you do care if I’m with somebody, or you don’t trust me. I just wanna know which it is.”

The silence stretched on as Red considered her words. Slowly, she turned the chair to face him. Max sat on the ground, pressed up against the wall, with his knees drawn to his chest. Her eyes met his and she set her face in a hard stare.

“I don’t remember the day where I started answering to you, boy.” He looked down at his knees. He clasped in front of his shins, and as always, how small he looked surprised her. “Let me be clear. You do not question me. Ever. This is not a democracy, and I don’t tolerate disrespect. Go back to my cube.”

Max stood up with effort and looked down at her. “Ma’am, I ain’t-”

Whatever he was going to say died in his throat when Red grabbed his pubic hair through his pants and twisted. His mouth dropped open but no sound came out. Moving didn’t help because adding any tension was excruciating. His eyes locked on the gate, hoping someone, anyone, would come by to help. As things usually went in his life, nobody saved him.

Red stared at her hand and then Max’s face. She let go of him and pushed her chair back until she hit her desk. “Max, go to the cube.”

He left without a word. Red thought about what she had done to him and sat in shock. To get her mind off the incident, she went back into the kitchen and took over dishes. The manual labor kept her focused and in the moment. Anytime her mind wandered back to the look of pain and horror on Max’s face, she yelled at one of the workers to do something.

It was a busy afternoon in the kitchen.

Red tried to put off returning to her cube for as long as possible. She sent for Nicky to come to her office. When the sheepish girl arrived, Red told her to sit on the crate by the door. “When you went to SHU, Max lost commissary and movie night for a week. What do you think would be fair for you?”

“The- same?” Nicky tried. Red stared at her. “And a foot rub?”

“A month after I warned you about going to SHU, girl.”

“And-”

“You’re grounded,” Red said. “You can go to meals, work, and the showers. Other than that, you have to be in your cube, or mine if I’m there. One week. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Good, I need your help.” Nicky raised her eyebrows and rubbed her hands together. “I touched Max- inappropriately.”

Red did not appreciate the look of victory on Nicky’s face. “Ma. Did you deflower our little boy?”

“No.” Red rubbed her face and wished she could erase the previous day of her life. “I twisted his pubic hair because I got angry at him.”

“Twisted?” Red rolled her eyes while she mimed what she had done. Nicky flinched. “Oh god, ma. That sounds horrible. Poor guy.”

Red nodded. “I don’t know what to say to him.” She explained what had happened, and Nicky grimaced. “I went way too far. If I had done that to one of my sons-”

“Ma, you gotta stop pretending you think of Max as a son.” Before Red could erupt with an argument, Nicky continued, “You're attracted to him. You stare at him when he's undressed. You make any excuse to touch him. Admit it, you want some of that.”

Red shook her head. “Nicky, he hasn’t got a vital part of what I’m interested in.”

“Pretend he did,” Nicky said. “Pretend he’s got just a massive cock. How interested are you now?” Red went to reply, but the image invaded her mind and her mouth closed. “If you try to tell me you didn’t just get excited, you’re lying. God, Red. Just get at it. You want him. When have you not taken what you want?”

“This is beside the point, he doesn’t-”

“Which wouldn’t matter when his face hair is tickling your thighs.”

“Nicky!”

Red wanted to be angry, but she had another image seared into her brain. She thought for a moment and sat back in her chair.

“Scold all you want, but I’m right. God, he’s nothing but young, hot male energy ready to be tamed. If you don’t do him, I might.”

The conversation had been less than helpful. Red held up her hand to Nicky to forestall any more weird interjections. “Nicky, I really need to know what to do here. I didn’t just hurt him, I violated him.”

“I got nothing, Red. Go say you’re sorry. He’s an unusually forgiving little dude. He’ll probably apologize for making you upset that you hurt him.”

Red conceded the validity of that assumption. Max stood out in the prison as a person that didn’t hold grudges for himself. He typically only held Red’s grudges.

Nicky excused herself. Red waited until the last forgivable moment to return to her cube. It was lights out, and Max was asleep in a ball with his back against the wall.

Red put her shoes under her bunk and then sat by Max. His eyes opened and he looked at her with a mix of confusion and fear as he tried to become one with the concrete behind him.

“Again, I did a terrible thing to you, Max,” she whispered as she looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry. I will never do something like that to you again.”

His nod said he understood, but his wide eyes said he didn’t believe her. Red laid down flat on her back beside him and wedged herself in so she would fit. He flattened against the wall as he tried to keep as much space between himself and her.

“I can not believe I did that,” Red said. “I think that goes to show that all these years in prison really haven’t changed me.” She tried to think of what to say that would make him more comfortable. “Have I told you why I’m here?”

“No ma’am.”

Red told him to the story of Ganya, the tit, the packages in the freezer, the Neptune idea, how she worked her way up to sitting with the men. Max listened raptly. Each time she glanced over, Max was staring at her with wide eyes.

Story finished, Red rolled just enough to comfortably look at his face. She could see a bruise on his ear where she had twisted, and she reached out to place a gentle hand there. He leaned harder into the pillow, away from her hand, until he realized she wasn’t hurting him. She gently ran her thumb around his ear while he closed his eyes and sighed.

Red watched him for several minutes as he relaxed more and more. Her hand brushed across his cheek, which was smooth except for a few scars. Intrigued, she ran her thumb up the long scar on his jaw from his suicide attempt. It had healed poorly and was rough and jagged. He shuddered as her thumb made another pass down the scar.

The memory of Gloria’s blood-stained khakis overwhelmed her. Thinking of how close she had come to losing him left a pain in her chest. She thought of Max in the closet, so much blood all over him and reaching out to her.

_He died, ma._

Red pressed forward and kissed him on the mouth.

Max froze for a second and then jerked back until his head hit the wall. “What was that?” Max whispered. His eyes were wide and his whole body was tense.

“I’m sorry,” Red said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t- I’m sorry.” She put a hand on his chest and tried to calm him, though she could feel his heart pounding. “I just- I’m sorry, Max.” Red considered that she had not thought about whether Max felt attracted to her.

“Did you do that on purpose?” he asked.

Red looked at him for several moments. “Yes. I’m sorry.”

Max shook his head and she watched color appear on his cheeks. “No, no. I’m sorry. I just got scared. I’ve never- you know.”

She ran a hand through his hair and her heart exploded with love. “You’ve never kissed anyone?”

“No. I, uh, no.”

Red smiled and continued touching his face. “I’m sorry your first happened like this.”

Max shrugged and grabbed her hand. “Maybe the second will be better,” he said in a whisper. His eyes wouldn’t meet hers, but she saw a very small smile ghost across his face. She leaned in and kissed him properly. The young man melted; all his muscles relaxed. He let her take charge and she rolled so she was mostly on top of him.

Red reached down and found the hem of his shirt, which she bypassed to slide her hand up his abs and chest. She explored the expanse of warm skin and felt him react positively.

After a few moments, they broke apart. He looked at her with intense eyes that seemed darker than usual. She smiled at him as she withdrew her hand from him. “How was that one?”

“Definitely better.”

“I love you,” she said. He smiled so wide and hesitantly reached out to brush fingers across her cheek. The touch was very gentle and warm. “I’m very confused about how I feel about you, but I know I love you.”

He laughed. She watched his eyes crinkle and his ears drew back, and she loved it. “You’re confused?” Max said. “I’ve never felt any of these feelings before.”

Reminded of how young Max was, Red sighed and rolled onto her back. “I don’t know what this means, Max.” She glanced at him, propped up on his elbow, and smirking. “I don’t know how this is going to work, because I love you very much, and I’m very attracted to you, but I don’t know where we go from here.”

“You really like plans, don’t you?” Max smiled again. A CO they couldn’t see walked by and shined a flashlight at them. After a moment, the CO moved on. “I never made a plan in my life didn’t go wrong. I don’t think life’s meant to be planned.”

“What does this mean for us, though? If we are-” She didn’t know how to phrase what they were doing. “Together?”

Max shrugged. “It means we love each other?”

Red smiled at the simplicity. Max was really not a complicated man, and she could probably learn from that. She ran her fingers up and down his thigh, which he seemed to like.

Max chuckled and said, “You did care if I was sleepin around.” Red closed her eyes and groaned.

“Shut up, Max.”

“You cared so much.”

“Max, shut up.” She slapped his thigh.

“You were jealous.”

“I swear, Max, I will cut you.”

He laughed again and moved to whisper into her ear, “But that means you do trust me.” She shivered when his breath hit her neck, and it sent an electric shock down her spine.

Feelings of guilt welled up in her chest. “I’m still sorry I hurt you, Max. I promise I’ll work on my anger.” She turned to look him in the eyes so he would know she was serious. “I won’t hurt you again, Max.”

“It’s fine,” Max said. “I’m a pretty tough guy.”

Red shook her head. “No, honey. I know the other side of you. The sweet, sensitive, hurt part of you that just wants to be safe and loved. And I keep fucking over that part of you. I’ll do better.”

The boy kissed her cheek. “You’re amazing. Maybe we can get better together.”

Red put a hand on her forehead and said, “I need a favor.”

He laughed.

****

Red stirred the oatmeal and grimaced at the lumpy consistency. She never would have fed that to her boys, and it appalled her that she had to serve it to her family.

After a few minutes of Red sorting vegetables, and cursing Neptune for not sending her sorted vegetables in the first place, Gina approached Red. “She got it,” the small woman said. Red smirked.

After another minute, the entire kitchen heard an ear-splitting scream. Chapman had definitely found the tampon Red had served her. Getting Max to collect a tampon had been a stroke of genius on her part, inspired by a comment Nicky had made weeks prior.

CO Donaldson walked into the kitchen and gave Red a dark look. “Come on, Red. Don’t torment the new girls.”

Red shrugged. “I was nice to her, and then she insulted me.”

“Jesus, Red. Give her a break.”

“No thank you,” Red said.

The CO rolled his eyes before he grabbed an apple and walked back into the cafeteria. Red scoffed at the idea of giving the girl a pass. She had never been one for passes, not since she had learned years before that actions, even unintentional ones, have consequences.

The freezer made an ominous sound behind her and Gina swore from across the room.


	21. Tea Punch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the fact that when I experience depression I cope by hurting Max.

Captain Joe Caputo sat in his office with the Warden, inmate Rogers, Sergeant Camponelli, Judge Jose Flores, and Principal Diane Williams of Litchfield High. 

The Warden sat in Caputo’s chair while Joe leaned on the windowsill to the left of his desk. The rest sat in chairs across the desk, while Max stood with his back against the wall to Caputo’s right. 

“This is a very interesting plan,” the judge said. He had greenlit the project with the Warden, his golf buddy. Judge Flores was not a federal judge, but he had seen a rise in the number of juvenile cases on his docket. When the Warden came to him with the concept from his higher-ups, his interest piqued. “And inmates will run the program?”

The Warden gestured to Max. “Inmate Rogers is uniquely qualified to connect with the juveniles and affect change. He is close to their age and knows how to communicate.”

“I’m concerned about the safety,” the principal said. “What’s the plan there?”

“We will have CERT officers, the Correctional Emergency Response Team, on hand to ensure the safety of all participants. They train to take down threats with as little injury as possible to any party. Sergeant Canponelli here has worked with CERT for 15 years, and he is effective.”

Williams looked between Max and Camponelli. “And it’s a six-month program?”

Max looked to the Warden until man nodded at him. “Studies have shown that a one day or a one-weekend program can’t change behavior.” Caputo blinked. Max spoke with only a slight accent, and he enunciated each word. It was so different from his usual drawl that Caputo hardly recognized the voice. “We’re going to use the prison visit to show them quickly that they aren’t as tough as they think they are. Once they realize this is not a place they want to be, it’s no joke, then we teach them effective emotional responses, proper communication techniques, handling stress, recognizing long term consequences, and how to empathize with the viewpoint of another.”

“That sounds like a lot,” the judge said.

Max nodded. “It will be only a small overview in the prison, and then consistent follow up over six months. Parental involvement and development will also be key, since many out of control teens have parents that don’t know how to communicate. It’s about flexibility. Think of tectonic plates. Two forces that are constantly pushing against each other result in chaos, there has to be communication and cooperation.” Caputo mouthed the words _tectonic plates_ as he stared at Max. 

The principal stared at Max as well. “Don’t you only have an eighth-grade education?”

Max tilted his head. “Don’t mean I don’t know things. Continents is like sixth grade science. Just because I don’t have a diploma doesn’t mean I’m an illiterate gorilla.”

The Warden laughed. “We’ve given Max restricted access to the internet to research this program. He’s deceptively intelligent.”

The conversation continued along the specifics of the program. Caputo felt impressed with the huge amount of effort Max put in. 

The Principal was reluctant to concede and wanted to draw out each detail. “And the inmates that have been selected to speak to the teens? They’re safe?”

Caputo laughed. “Several of them are murderers, I’m not sure I would call them safe. But I would trust them to not hurt the children. These are minimum-security female offenders. And Max.”

Once the conversation ended, CO Bell arrived to escort the officials out of the building. The Warden hung back and looked to Max. “How are things going, young man?”

Max smiled. “Very well, sir, thank you.”

Warden Young nodded. He looked Max over with a critical eye. He was still concerned about the boy's weight. “Good. I’m glad things have improved for you. How is your appeal going?”

“Honestly, sir, my cousin is spearheading that. I haven’t followed closely.”

“Well, we’re all hoping it goes well for you. You should go to movie night this week, there’s going to be a video you’ll like.”

****

Red reclined on the counter as Norma shaved her legs. Her book was interesting and her radio station came in clearest while in the bathroom. She heard Max’s water turn off and he stepped out of the shower stall.

Before she could say anything to him, Chapman entered the bathroom and started talking to her. Red replied while only partially paying attention.

A word caught her attention and she repeated it with distaste. “Artisanal.” The word grated on her nerves for some reason.

Max came around the corner and stared at Chapman with a towel around his waist and another drying his hair. Chapman’s eyes widened as she stared at Max’s chest and abs. Red felt a thrill of jealousy light her stomach on fire.

“Listen, honey. This place has rules.”

Max watched the exchange in interest. He absent-mindedly began rubbing Red’s shoulders as best he could while she laid down. The conversation with Chapman ended when Red not-so-subtly hinted to the woman that she would have to make up for the insult- creatively.

Once Chapman left, Red looked to Max. “If you keep doing that, I’m not going to be able to get off this counter.”

Max shrugged. “I can carry you.”

Red laughed while Norma smiled.

****

Red tried to keep the chaos under control while the Luschek dicked around with the broken freezer. Claudette side-eyed Red when she pulled a frozen cat in a bag out. Gina did her best to remove all the food before the incompetent CO caught everything on fire.

“I know what has to happen.” Red turned to the irritating voice of Chapman, who had materialized by the walk-in. She looked tense and shifted her weight from foot to foot.

“What the hell are you doing? We’re a little busy,” Red barked. 

Chapman rolled her neck and raised her fists. Everyone in the kitchen stopped to stare, and Luschek almost dropped his popsicle. 

“I know we have to fight, so let’s just do it.”

“Are you insane-”

It was the slap heard ’round the prison. 

Luschek did drop his popsicle. Gina and Norma stood slack-jawed and looked between Chapman and Red. Norma covered her mouth while Claudette looked on with anger.

Red squared her shoulders and stared at the wide-eyed Chapman. “I have met many people in prison,” Red said, “and even the poorest educated has not held a candle to your stupidity. You just walked into my kitchen, hit me, and you thought this would solve your problem? Little girl, you’ve made a mistake.”

“Rosa said we have to fight to settle our beef.”

Red turned to look at Norma and tapped over her heart. Norma nodded and left the kitchen in a hurry. The chef turned back to Chapman and stalked toward her. “You insulted my cooking. You hit me. You’re going to starve, little girl, and your family will collect you in a body bag. Get out of my kitchen.”

Chapman scurried out of the kitchen and Red turned to Gina. “Get this cleaned up.”

She first went to the administrative wing and cornered Healy in the staff bathroom to demand a new freezer. After, Red sought out Max and found him on his bunk with Norma faced into the cube from the entrance. Red patted her shoulder and the woman returned to the kitchen. 

Max leaped to his feet and stared down at her. She said, “I’m not in the mood to argue with you, Max. You are not going to do anything unless I give you direct, clear permission. Do you understand?” Max looked ready to argue. His shoulders raised and his lips drew back into a grimace. “I am so serious, Max. Don’t.”

He deflated and put his hands on her shoulders, and she liked the weight of them. “Are you okay?”

“Of course, she’s a twig,” Red answered with a scoff. Max moved his hands to cup her face. “I’m fine, Max.”

“I’m sorry,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her. She rested her cheek on his chest. 

“What for?”

“I wasn’t there-” She put her finger over his lips.

“Max, shut up. I appreciate that you want to protect me, but it’s not feasible. I am fine, little lion. You’re a sweetheart.” Max squeezed her and then stepped back to look at her. “This won’t slide, though. I’m going to get that little bitch.”

Max smiled widely. “Can I-”

“No, you may not kill her.”

“Okay, but I’m here for you.”

Red smirked and pulled him toward her by his waistband. “I love that about you.” Max kissed the mark on her face, which made her smile. He grinned at her widely. “Oh, honey, I think one more of those will definitely help.”

Max laughed and pressed a dozen kisses across her cheek. “Better?”

“I don’t know-”

Max growled playfully and lifted her up into his arms. He kissed all over her face, and then down the side of her neck. She let her hands wander up his sides under his shirt. His skin was warm and his hard muscles made her want to do wildly inappropriate things with him. 

****

Piper returned to her room and hopped up on her bunk. Nicky took out an earbud and said, “What’s up, Chapman? You look terrible.”

“I slapped Red.”

Nicky stared at her in disbelief. “You fucking _what_?”

Anita stared up at her as well. “Yikes.”

“I thought that’s what I was supposed to do!”

“What would make you think that was a good idea of something to do? Did you miss the fact that Red runs this prison? Or that she has a personal attack dog that’s an actual murderer?”

Piper felt her stomach flip. “Oh my god. I’m so bad at this.”

Nicky shook her head. “Nah, Chapman, you’re the worst at this. I can’t talk to you anymore because, you know, loyalty. Good luck, Chapman.”

Anita nodded. “Sorry, kid. Tribes run deep.”

Piper sat on her bunk with her back to the wall and faced the door. Two COs appeared before lights out to point and giggle at her. She wondered why they hadn't taken her to SHU, having assaulted another inmate. A sinking feeling broiled in her gut as she thought about it. The possibility that the COs kept her at camp to see the drama unfold disturbed her. 

After a fitful night of sleep, Piper woke and dressed for her visitation with Larry.

He arrived late, but she skipped over his excuses to let him know what had happened in her first few days.

“I insulted her cooking, and then I thought I would have to fight her to settle beef, so I slapped her.” Larry’s eyes widened with each word Piper said. “Except the chef is here for some mafia connections and, oh, oh my god, her best friend and bunkie is Max Rogers. Like, Mad Max, Max Rogers.”

“Holy shit,” Larry whispered with urgency. “What do you do now?”

Piper frantically shrugged. “I have no idea. I have to eat something and Max is gigantic. He looks like Captain fucking America. How am I supposed to prison fight an angry Russian woman and an Avenger?”

Larry grimaced, “Piper, you’ve been here three days.”

“I know, Larry. Apparently, things happen quickly in prison.”

****

Red turned in her chair and looked over her glasses at Max as he entered. He smirked at her and pulled his shirt off. Her eyes dropped to stare at his pecs, which were well defined.

“My eyes are up here,” he teased.

“I don’t want to lick your eyes, though.”

The boy laughed and knelt at his locker, which gave Red a nice view of his back. She watched his muscles as he moved around, and she had a strong urge to manhandle him onto the bunk. 

Red continued to watch him as he rummaged through his things. Her gaze followed his spine down to his waistband as her thoughts wandered.

She barely noticed when he turned back to her and said, “Have you seen my book?”

It took her a moment to focus on his face. She blinked and said, “What?”

“My book? The one about hunting?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Am I distracting you?” Max moved forward and put both hands on the back of her chair, so he was as close as possible. He was on his knees in front of her, and Red liked the look of that.

“Don’t get cocky,” warned Red.

He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Or what?”

“You are impossible,” she said, then she kissed his nose. As she leaned closer, Red whispered, "To answer your question, boy: just because we're together does not mean that I am not in charge, or that I won't spank you if you misbehave."

He grinned at her and then kissed her cheek. "Thank you."

Max stood and went to his bunk when Gina came in with the order forms for the kitchen. Red continued to send glances at him as he stared at the ceiling. She could see that he was lost in thought, and she wondered what he was thinking of.

Red focused on the papers and asked Gina to make some corrections. “She’s busy,” Gina barked suddenly. Red looked up and saw Chapman at the entrance to the cube. 

“This will only take a second,” Chapman pleaded. Red nodded to Gina and the girl stepped back. Chapman put a small bottle on the foot rail of Red’s bunk. “This is for your back,” she explained. “It’s jalapeno rub. The capsaicin in the pepper relieves sore muscles, and the cocoa butter is gentle on the skin. We have a similar product in our line.”

Gina stepped forward again. “Time’s up.” Red glanced in her mirror and saw Max tense as a bowstring on his bunk. He looked ready to rip Chapman’s face off.

Chapman scurried off right before the count bell rang. Gina grabbed the papers she needed and ran across the room to her own cube. Max and Red stood outside of their cube and waited for the count. Red nodded to Nicky, who was then distracted by Lorna across the room.

When they went back into their cube, Max walked in very close behind Red, so that his chest was against her back. She stopped and let him walk into her before she turned around and looked up at him. “You are being very forward,” she said with a grin. He smirked down at her. “Oh, boy, you are going to be fun.” He slid by her and sat on her bunk, where she joined him.

They spoke in voices that were quieter than normal. “Why are you attracted to me?” asked Max.

Red let out a breath and looked around. “Wow,” she said. “Right to the point. I would be lying if I said it had nothing to do with your physical strength. And your physical appearance. And your personality. There’s also the fact that I’m a very- dominant person, and it’s captivating to have you submit to me of your own will.” Red enjoyed the small sound Max made. “Why are you attracted to me?”

“I mean, you’re stunning. And you’re damn smart. And I feel- safe with you. I can’t explain that. I feel like you’re the only person in the world I can be soft around. And I like that you don’t take any of my shit.”

Red smiled and looked into his eyes. “You had me at stunning. I think you’re stunning, as well. I’ll be more impressed when I see you naked.”

Max squirmed but put his left hand on her thigh. She looked down at that hand. His palm was wide and thick. His hands had once ripped a man’s skull apart, which fascinated Red because he had never been anything but gentle with her. She looked at the scars and burns on the back of his hand and ran a finger over the worst one. “What is this from?”

“The bonfire,” Max said. 

Red picked his hand up to examine it closely. “I thought you were in a tree?”

“I was. And then I jumped into the fire.”

Red dropped her head forward. “Max.”

“It was a dark time.”

“I’m so sorry, Max,” she said. “I’m sorry you didn’t have a good enough family. I’m sorry you never got to have real happiness.”

Max put his hand back on her leg. “I have you, what else could I possibly want?”

Red smiled. Max’s hand moved fractionally up her leg, but she felt a thrill up her back as her stomach flipped. Max didn’t move again, and his energy remained calm and controlled. “I appreciate you, Max. I love you.”

“Don’t go soft on me now, Red. You’re gettin downright sentimental.”

She laughed. “Never.”

****

Max sat beside Red at the movie. She put her arm around his shoulders and leaned against him. Nicky reached across Red to pass a bag of pop tart chips to Max, which he examined with some trepidation before he handed them back.

The lights went off and the show started right away.

~~~~~~~

The video included Beau Rogers going over developments on Max’s appeal, and some of the things Max got up to when he escaped custody during his trial. The inmates also got to see the extent of Max’s family money, and precisely the value of the lawsuit he won against his family and the county.

~~~~~~~

The video ended and Red turned to look at Max as the movie started. He gave her a rueful smile, which she returned with an eye-roll. 

After the movie, Max and Red were the first to rise. When Max saw Chapman, he snarled. The woman paled and looked straight forward. As they exited the rec room, Red softly said, “Max.”

Without further discussion, they walked to Red’s office. She turned to look at him with stern eyes. “What did I tell you about harassing Chapman?”

“I know, I’m sorry. I just hate her so much,” Max said. “She hurt you and I hate her for that.”

Red smiled and put a hand on his cheek. “So protective, my silly little lion. Alright, I concede. You may scare her with your face, but you won’t touch her or speak to her. Do you understand?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good. Now, let’s go back to the cube so the girls can ask their questions.”

He took a step toward her with a small smile. She smirked at him as she grabbed the front of his shirt to pull him closer and kiss him. His hands wrapped around her lower back and held her tight. 

When they returned to the cube, the family was waiting for them. Boo, Tricia, and Mercy were on Max’s bunk, while Norma, sister Ingalls, and Gina were on Red’s bunk. Nicky was on the ground between the two lockers. Yoga leaned in the corner by the foot of Red’s bed. 

“You’re a billionaire?” Boo asked. “What the fuck?”

Max sat on his locker as Red sat on her chair. 

“That’s a complicated situation. I won a lawsuit against my family. My family owns the county,” Max explained. “As a trust, they own every house, business, building, and farm in the county, and all the land it sits on. They were one of the first white families to settle in Mississippi, and they took over and kept nearly half a million acres with a militia. Since then, the trust has aggressively defended their ownership.”

“And that’s yours now?”

“It’s complicated by my incarceration, right now my cousin Beau Rogers is the interim owner of the trust. And there's an ongoing legal battle.”

“He’s actually your cousin?” Nicky said. 

“Yeah, back in the late 18th century, one of my ancestors owned one of his, raped her, and there you go. We joke about what degree of cousins we are because family trees in the south aren’t so straightforward.”

Nicky and Boo snorted. Boo said, “So all in favor of calling him Big Dick from now on?”

Max covered his face and said, “Oh god.” He would not forgive Beau for posting that woman's comments about his _big dick energy_.

The women laughed at him. “I’d like to talk about Max jumping onto a moving truck from a bridge,” Red said. Max let out a dry chuckle. Red continued in a deadpan, “I thought that was hilarious.”

Sister said, “Do you feel any sort of fear when you do things like that? Do you worry about getting hurt or anything?”

Max scratched behind his right ear. “No. I mostly just feel adrenaline.”

Red made a sound in her throat. “Interesting.”

“I want to know about the dog,” Lorna said. 

A strong feeling of pain filled Max’s chest and all his limbs tripled in weight. He gasped as he tried to speak. “I had a dog since I was seven,” he said. Anger stabbed through him and he grabbed his abdomen. “His name was Thurgood. When I moved into my truck, he came with me. When I was 17, they stole him from me, poured gas on him, and lit him on fire.”

Most of the women gasped. Max curled his legs up to his chest and covered his face. “Fuck, Max, that’s horrifying,” Nicky said. “Are you okay?”

Max’s laugh was hollow. “Yeah. I definitely got back at them.”

Arms wrapped around him, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Nicky’s wild hair. The hug lasted for several moments, and Max relaxed. Nicky stepped back and said, “What happened then?”

“I blew up their bonfire.”

“Shit,” Nicky said. “Your life was just a domino of one bad thing after another.”

Max shrugged. “He ain’t gunna kill no one else’s dog now.” 

“Alright John Wick,” Nicky said as she patted his back. “What did they mean about C4?”

“I carved C4 bricks into little dogs and put them behind their tires during the bonfire.”

All the women in the cube stared at him. Boo said, “You carved C4?”

“It only explodes with pressure. You can carve it and light it on fire and stuff, but it only explodes with an impact. So when they drove over it, it blew their tires off.”

They continued talking until lights out. When their bunk cleared, Red stood and walked over to Max. She wrapped her arms around him, pulled him to her chest, and gave him a dozen kisses all across the side of his face, which made him smile.

“I love you, Max,” she said. She sniffed his hair and said, “And I agree with your cousin, you smell fantastic.”

Max tried to dodge her, but she grabbed him firmly and held him tight. “Ma’am.”

She laughed and kissed him again. “I don’t know what I would do without you, Max. You’re so important to me.” His back straightened and he smiled at her. 

“You’re important to me, too, ma’am.”

Red smirked and smacked his thigh. “Are you going to call me ma’am forever?”

He smiled and nuzzled into her neck. She smelled pretty good herself. “Yes. You’re my- my ma’am.” Red raised an eyebrow as she tilted her head down to kiss his hair. “I don’t know what that means. But it’s important to me."

"Alright, sweet man. As long as you're happy.”

****

Red watched as Luschek installed her new freezer. She shared a brief smirk with Norma. Caputo and Healy were talking quietly by the prep table. 

“Take one more step, Rogers, I dare you,” Caputo snapped.

Red turned and saw Max by at the very edge of the kitchen. He smiled at her as she walked toward him. “What are you doing here, lion?”

When Red was in front of him, he said, “I couldn’t go another minute without seeing you. It was horrible.”

Red blinked at him. “It’s been two hours.”

“ _Horrible_.”

His dopey expression made her laugh. “Stay there and I’ll make you a snack.”

Red prepared a sandwich and handed it to the boy. He thanked her, brushing his fingers against her hand for an extra moment. “Thanks!” Max said.

Red winked at him and went back to cooking. Max sat in the cafeteria to eat the sandwich and then went back to his cube. He cleaned up the cube and changed Red’s sheets. Once he had everything looking decent, he laid on his bunk and waited for Red.

She arrived a few hours later and raised an eyebrow at him. “You skipped dinner.”

Max sat up as Red settled in at her locker with paper and a pen. “I had the sandwich and some tuna.”

Red turned to look at him over her shoulder. “You’re on thin ice, honey. You’re going to eat more before you sleep.”

“Okay,” Max said. He walked up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. She let out a sound of appreciation and put down her pen. “How about I make you some tea and you can relax all night?”

She tilted her head to rest it on his hand. “That sounds nice. I really want to get this letter written.”

He bent forward and whispered in her ear, “I’ll take my time with the tea.” He kissed her cheek and put on his shoes. He walked out of the cube toward the kitchen. Once in Red’s office, Max brewed a pot of hot water in the coffee machine and grabbed a teabag from Red’s desk. When he saw he had taken mint, he paused. A moment passed before he put it back and looked for chamomile. 

Tea in hand, Max began his walk back to the cube. Red was on her bunk with a book when he returned. He handed her the tea and sat beside her. “What’s going on, Max?”

“Nothing.”

“Why are you being weird?”

“I’m not?”

Red went back to her book. Max reached over to massage her thigh. Red looked at him over the hardcover for a moment, but looked down again. Minutes passed between them. He moved on to her other thigh. It felt nice, but Red could not help but think something was off. 

“Do you need something?” she asked.

“No. Am I bothering you?” 

Red did not answer. She continued reading. 

A few more minutes passed. “Ma’am, can I-”

“I _knew_ it,” Red snapped. She pushed him to the floor and threw the mug at him. Max put his hands over his face as hot tea splashed his arms and chest. “I knew you were trying to get something from me.”

Max jumped to his feet and left the cube. Red watched him go with simmering anger. She got up to clean up the tea, but as she looked at the mess, her anger faded. She had not meant to lose her temper, and she hoped Max was okay. 

Final count rolled around, and Max had not returned. Red worried he would be in trouble, but Donaldson didn’t seem concerned. Red approached the CO after the count. “Where is my bunkie?”

“Medical,” answered Donaldson. 

Red’s stomach jolted. “Is he okay?”

“He had some minor burns, and hurt his wrist.”

Red went back to her cube and laid down. She thought about what had happened throughout the evening. Max had rubbed her shoulders, made her tea, and then massaged her sore legs. He had been nothing short of the perfect partner, the sort of man Red had always dreamed of. She examined why she always seemed to hurt Max, who never did anything to deserve her aggression. 

****

Max sat across from Nicky in the cafeteria as they both ate breakfast. “So, you fell,” Nicky said. “Must have been a hell of a fall.”

“It was,” Max said. He speared another piece of egg.

Red sat next to him with her own tray. She looked him over and her eyes paused on the splint on his wrist. “What happened?” she asked.

Nicky, in her most patronizing tone, said, “He _fell_. We all know how _clumsy_ Max is.”

Red carefully looked up at him. He did not look away from his food as he continued eating. Nicky took that opportunity to leave the table. Red took two sausages off her tray and placed them by Max’s toast. She hoped he would take her offering. 

Max said nothing. Red tried to touch his leg under the table, but he jerked away. “Max, please,” Red said. “Talk to me?”

“You promised me you would never hurt me again. I don’t even know why you did that. I was just trying to be nice.”

“I know, Max. It won’t happen again.” Red picked at her eggs. “What were you trying to ask me?”

He remained silent for a moment. “I was going to ask if I could rub your feet.”

Red dropped her fork on her tray. “Jesus fuck,” she said. “Of course you were. _Fuck_.”

“I’m not your ex,” Max said in a low tone. “I’m not going to play tit-for-tat and only do something nice for you to get something in return. I just like doing nice things for you.”

Red tried again to touch his leg, and rejoiced when he let her. “Okay. I’ll let you do nice things for me without getting suspicious.”

He snorted and ate a sausage. “Okay.”

“What I mean is, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t jump to these conclusions with you. You deserve the benefit of the doubt, and more.”

Max finished his tray and started to stand, until Red took firm hold of the back of his shirt. He returned to his seat and looked at the table.

“Max.”

“I need to be alone for a while.”

Red let go of his shirt, and he left the cafeteria. Red finished her food and returned to the kitchen, where she went to work on lunch.

****

Red walked into her cube with a fluttering feeling in her gut. Max was on his bunk, asleep. Red tried to be as quiet as possible as she prepared for a shower and left the cube.

When she returned, Max was awake and sitting up with his feet on the floor. He rubbed the back of his neck and only glanced at her when she entered. Red put her things away and then sat on her own bunk to face him.

“Are you still mad at me?” she asked. She wanted Max to be okay with her again.

“No.” 

Red stood and then sat beside him. She rubbed his back gently. “Donaldson said you had burns?”

Max twisted and lifted his right arm to show her a bandage. “It’s not bad.”

“I didn’t mean to do that.”

“I know.”

Red put her hand on his knee and squeezed. “Can I make you some tea?”

“I would like that,” Max said. Red patted his leg and went to her locker to get supplies. She boiled water and added a teabag. 

Tea finished, she turned to Max. She directed him to lay back on his pillow then handed him the mug. “It’s green, sorry.”

“I don’t mind. Thank you.”

Red rubbed his arm. “Do you think you can forgive me?”

He looked at her face for the first time since she entered. “Yes.”

Red smiled and stroked his face. “Thank you, Max. I love you, honey.”

She sat further back and to the end of his bunk and pulled his foot onto her lap. She started rubbing the arch, and Max jumped. “Holy shit,” he said. 

“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

“Yes. No. I didn’t expect that to feel like that.”

Red smiled and continued. She enjoyed his reaction as she worked her way to his calves. He couldn’t keep still and he giggled uncontrollably. Red had known he was sensitive, but she had no idea merely touching his leg would make him react.

He set his mug down to avoid spilling as he jerked around. Red laughed and then climbed on top of him. Max made a high-pitched sound and pretended to fight her off. Red pinned his forearms on either side of his head then kissed his cheek.

His shining eyes made her smile as he struggled to bend his neck enough to kiss her. Red obliged and moved closer. Max kissed her and smiled. “You're beautiful,” he said. Red rested her weight on him and settled her head next to his on the pillow so her face pressed against his. 

“I promise I’ll do better, Max.”

“It’s okay,” he said. He wrapped his freed arms around her and squeezed. “I love you.”


	22. Showers and Names

Red pushed Max back into the shower stall as he tried to step out. His eyes widened and he looked her up and down as his breath caught when she closed the curtain and pulled his towel off his waist. Boxers already covered his lower half. Max’s confidence wavered as she stared at him.

The woman ran her hands up his abs to rest on his chest and pushed him against the wall. “Ma’am,” he said in surprise. He brought his hands up to her shoulders, and Red tried not to look at his splint.

She pushed her finger to his lips. “Don’t. Just listen.” She looked him over again. His hands dropped to rest by his side but twitched nervously. “I love you. I think you’re beautiful. And I want to see your body.” Max’s eyes widened. “I want to see _your_ body. I understand that you’re worried. Please let me do this.” Max looked at her and nodded, but she could tell he was nervous. “Do exactly as I say, Max. If you feel uncomfortable or need to stop, say my ex-husband’s name, and I will stop immediately with no hurt feelings.” He nodded. “It’s very important that you know that you can stop this any time you want. You’re in control of that, Max. I would never be angry about that.”

She took his shoulders and turned him around so he faced away from her. “I’m going to go slow, Max, but I want you to know how badly I want this. I want you.” She trailed her hands down his back to the waistband of his boxers. “You’re so beautiful, Max. I love you.” She hooked her fingers into the waistband and pushed downward. As she undressed him, she pressed a kiss to his shoulder. The boxers fell around Max’s calves. She let her hands wander down to his hips, which she grabbed tightly. “I’m going to touch you now, Max. Remember what I said.”

He put his hands on the wall and took deep breaths. “Good boy, good boy.” Red stepped closer to him until she was up against his back. Her right hand slowly moved across the front of his leg until she found his pubic hair. For a few moments, she just barely brushed the hair with her finger. Max’s breathing sped up and she could feel his chest heave. “Relax, honey. Just relax. I love you. Do you want this?”

“Yes.” 

~~~~~~~  
~~~~~~~

Red bent down and pulled his boxers back up. She could tell that he was in euphoric shock and his muscles were all shaking. Red straightened and kissed his cheek. “Clean up, love, and we’ll go back to the cube.”

She stepped out of the shower to wash her hands in the sink. 

Five minutes later, they returned to their cube and laid on Max’s bunk. He curled up against her and held her tightly. “Are you happy, Max?”

“Yes.” He sounded warm and sleepy. 

Red smiled and traced his jaw with her finger. “Thank you, Max, for sharing yourself with me. I appreciate that you trusted me with your body. I think you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.”

He looked up at her with a goofy grin and said, “Thanks, Red. You’re beautiful.” His smile turned mischievous as he said, “So when do I get to reciprocate?”

Red flicked his ear. “When I say you can. Just like everything else.” He shivered against her. Red liked how he responded to her. “I think you’ll have to earn it.” His back arched. “Yeah, I think I’ll make you earn that privilege. What do you think you can do to deserve that, hmm?” Max rubbed his face against her and squirmed around as he gave her puppy eyes. She shook her head. “No, honey. It certainly won’t be that easy.”

She rubbed his chest and his eyes closed as he settled against her. “I’d do anything for you,” he said.

“Good boy.” His back arched again and he pressed against her. “Go to sleep now, I’ll stay with you.” 

It didn’t take more than a minute for him to doze off. Red stroked his cheek and considered how she felt about him. His body amazed her, and he was protective and sweet. She had no regrets about forming a relationship with him, but she didn’t want it to be like her previous relationships. She had always come second with prior men in her life, and she’d felt pushed around. Part of her attraction to Max was that he submitted to her so completely, and she wanted to foster that.

Red kissed Max’s forehead and considered her options. What did she want from Max? His loyalty, his obedience, and his love. That shouldn’t be too hard, given his general feelings toward her. Red decided to become a little more adventurous with Max because she did not feel she had to be embarrassed by anything around him. With his lack of experience, she was confident that he wouldn’t mind. She would just need to make sure he wanted to make her happy.

****

Max and Red both woke early. She wrapped her arms tighter around him and kissed his forehead. “Good morning, love.”

He rolled and kissed her. “Good morning.”

Red woke up more and he shifted. It was too early to go to the kitchen, so Red stood to stretch. The doctor told her that stretching would help her growing back pain. Max propped himself on his arm and watched her with an appreciative eye, especially when she did a forward bend and gave him a clear view down the front of her shirt. When she felt warmed up, she sat beside him again.

“Are you staring, Max?”

“How could I not?” he said with no shame. “You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever seen.”

He put his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder. Red ran a hand through his soft hair and looked down at him in amusement.

“Did I ever tell you about my relationship with Dmitri?” He shook his head. “I- I appreciate how you treat me. Dmitri, when we had sex, he usually did not care if I wanted it or not. And when he touched me, it was like being pawed by an animal. It never felt like he was touching me, just my body. He didn’t love _me_ , you know?”

That made Max angry. He pulled her on top of him and held her. “I’m sorry, Red.”

She kissed him deeply. “You are so different. When you touch me, I feel like you’re touching _me_ , not just my body. That you love _me._ Not just fucking me or using me for running a business or raising babies. It’s such a nice feeling.”

“I do love you,” Max said. “And while your body is delightful in every way, I am way more interested in so many other things.”

She guided his hand under her shirt. He smiled as he continued to run his fingers over her warm skin. She got goosebumps wherever he touched, and a shiver forced its way up her back. She whispered in his ear, “You’ve certainly made me very happy. Do you want to do more?” Max’s hips reacted more so than anything else.

~~~~~  
~~~~~

Max kissed her and whispered, “I love you, Red.”

She kissed him again. “I love you, Max.”

They got up and went through their morning routines. She had to giggle and push him away a few times when he tried to distract her with kisses. 

Red went to the kitchen, and Max began his morning routine. 

After dinner, Red sat in the common room with Max as she played cards with Norma and Nicky. Max had no interest in cards, so he sat near her and listened to her explain Russian naming conventions. She had a lot of feelings over her last name, and she explained her son’s names, Yuri, Maksim, and Vasily, in detail. 

“What is your full name, Max?”

“Maximus Autodikos Rogers.”

Nicky burst into laughter, but Red nodded. “And those mean?”

Max raised an eyebrow. “Uh, _greatest,_ then, uh, _the one who takes law in hands_ , and- _son of Roger_.”

Nicky tilted her head. “What’s your father’s name?”

“Roger.”

“His fucking name is Roger Rogers?”

Max snorted. “Yes, Nicole Nichols.”

“So he is Roger Rogers from Rogerstown in Rogersville County?” 

Nicky and Norma giggled while Red smirked. “Sorry, Max.”

He shrugged, “It’s a weird family.”

Red continued explaining names to him. He listened with interest and asked many questions. “So what is your full name?” Max asked. 

“Galina Mikhailovna Reznikov,” she answered.

“Neat,” Max said. He sounded genuine and not at all taunting, which Red found cute. “That’s a pretty name.” She smiled at him, and then she won her hand. 

“Oh, honey. You’ll have to sit with me more often. I’m cleaning up, these two will go home with no commissary.” Max rubbed her leg under the table so no one would see, but Red loved the feeling of his large warm hand. “In conclusion, there are many names I might call you. I’m lucky you have a Russian name.”

Max laughed. “I got it from an album titled _Battle_ _Maximus._ We had a naming party to decide on my name, that’s why it sounds like it was made up by drunk 12-year-olds with a baby name dictionary.”

“What was your name before?” Lorna asked. 

Max looked at her blankly. “That’s not generally a kind thing to ask us, but I was named Liberty Rogers at birth. But my nickname was either Cricket, Gator, or Ace depending on who was talking to me. Very rare to use a given name in my part of the South.”

“Cricket is cute,” Lorna said.

“My family called me that because I was small and annoying and nobody wanted me in the house.”

“What about Gator?” Nicky asked. 

“I wrestled an alligator when I was nine and I won. The kids at school called me Gator after that.”

“And Ace?” Red asked.

“That’s a common nickname for someone good at things. My people called me that.”

Red patted his hand. “That’s cute. I like that one.” He smiled at her, and Red felt a wave of lightheadedness as she saw his bright face. She blinked and tried to regain her composure. Max remained oblivious to the impact he had on her. 

****

Red walked into the cube and gave Max a look that told him right away that she was amused. 

“Guess where they put Chapman.”

“Where?”

“With Claudette.”

Max sat up off his bunk and his mouth dropped open. “No _way._ ”

“Yeah. It’s not even my birthday.”

Max froze for a moment and then said, “When is your birthday?”

“June twentieth.”

She sat down beside Max and he put his hand on her leg. “Oh. I’m sorry, ma’am. I missed it. I didn’t mean to skip it.”

Red smiled and patted his cheek. “Do not worry. You were going through a lot.”

He leaned against her and she wrapped an arm around him. He continued to think as he held her left hand and looked at her fingers. “How old are you?”

“What?” she asked. “You’ve known me all this time, _fucked me_ , and you don’t know how old I am?”

“I’m sorry. I mean, it’s not important. I was just curious.”

Red rolled her eyes and pulled his head closer to kiss. “I’m 47.”

She waited, curious how he would react. He was individually holding and examining each of her fingers on her left hand. He found a scar she got early on in prison from not paying attention when she was cutting vegetables. He kissed the scar and then continued to her ring finger. 

“What are you doing?” Red asked.

Max glanced at her and rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. “Just memorizing every part of you. You’re so beautiful.”

Red smiled at him and leaned forward to kiss him. “Yeah, I think I’ll keep you around.”

****

Max sat in the common room and shuffled cards. He dealt a hand to Nicky, Norma, Mercy, and Red. They played poker as Red complained about not having cigarettes. 

“There were a few good years,” Red said. “They sold them at commissary. Fucking feds.”

“I bet the Warden would let me smoke,” Max said. He dealt the flop.

Red reached over and smacked his head. “If you do that, I will filet you, pan sear you, and then feed you to these nicotine withdrawn bitches.”

Max grinned as the women placed bets. Betting was interesting because they could not officially wager. Max kept score of who had what and who lost what. They bet with commissary. The losers paid into a pot for the winner, who would tell them what to buy for them.

Nicky set her cards on the table to drink her soda. “Did you guys hear? Crazy-Eyes pissed all over Chapman’s cube.”

Max paused as he went to flip the turn card. “What?” 

They all stared at Nicky, who nodded with a mischievous grin. “Miss Claudette was pissed. Get it?”

“Ugh,” Red said. “You’re an awful child.”

Nicky’s grin widened. “Crazy thinks she’s married to Chapman.”

“Jesus,” Red said. Norma was amused, as she hid her smile behind her cards. 

Mercy shook her head. “That girl is something else,” she said. “She tried to tell Trish about cultural appropriation because of her cornrows. Trish almost shanked her with a screwdriver.”

Red clicked her tongue. “She’s going to learn.”

“Or die,” Max added. 

Red gave him a dark look, which he laughed off. After the hand, which Mercy won, Tricia entered the common room and pulled up a chair between Red and Mercy.

“Yo, Max. Let me take over. Sophia wants to talk to you.”

Red looked to Max with a raised eyebrow. He said, “I have no idea.” He gave the cards to Tricia and patted Red’s shoulder as he walked by to the salon.

When he arrived, Sophia said, “Oh, good. Sit.” She spun Max’s chair to face the mirror and she said, “They cut more hormones. Then they took me off completely.”

“What?” 

Sophia covered him in a gown and started trimming up his hair. “They said budget cuts. When I fought back, they took me off completely.”

“What the fuck? That’s not right.”

“I need your help, Max. Red won’t bring in my pills. I even asked my wife to smuggle them in.”

“Whoa, Sophia. No need to do all that. You’re going to be okay. This will be handled.”

“I feel so awful,” she said. “Did they change your dose?”

“I get my shot every two weeks, I’m due in three days. They certainly don’t want to see that happen.”

They continued to talk, with Sophia telling Max her story about how she had ended up in prison.

Before he left, Max assured her everything would be okay. She hugged him and ruffled his hair.

Max wandered back toward his cube, but he didn’t feel like sitting around. He decided to walk for a bit, so he turned and went toward the commissary. 

He crossed paths with Chapman, who stepped far to the side to avoid him. He slowed to give her a look. She ducked her head and looked away from him as she sped by. He continued walking, though his thoughts took on a more excitable tone. He wanted Red to greenlight the stupid woman.

Max had been walking for fifteen minutes when Bell grabbed his arm. “Where ya headed?”

“Um, my dorm?” 

“Wrong direction. You’re exercising,” she accused. “It’s Thursday; you don’t get to exercise today. Let’s go.”

She dragged him back to his cube by the arm. He sat on his bunk and sighed. Bell told him to stay in his cube for the rest of the night before she left.

An hour later, Red arrived. She set her sweatshirt on her bunk and then turned to look at him with her arms crossed. “Give me one _good_ reason why I shouldn’t bring you to my office right now.”

Max hunched down and said, “I was just walking!”

Red uncrossed her arms and put her hands on her hips. “Why were you walking?”

Max tried to think of a good answer. Red raised an eyebrow as she waited. “To, uh, get somewhere?”

Red took his arm and pulled him from the bunk. He dug in his heels, and Red said, “Max.”

“Bell said I have to stay in here.”

The woman looked at him with a stern expression. Max gave her a rueful smile as he put his hand on her hip. “I was just walking around, stretching my legs. I’m a young guy, I need to move.”

Red’s stern facade faltered. She loosened her grip on him and looked at him for a few moments. “You are not to exercise outside of the set times. Is that clear enough for you?”

“Yes ma’am,” Max said. He pulled her closer and kissed her cheek. Red rolled her eyes and went to her locker. She pulled out tuna and crackers, which she handed to him. “I’m not hungry,” he said. 

“Sixteen pounds, Max. I’m not fucking around.”

Max took the items and sat on his bunk. Red prepared for a shower and then left the cube. As Max ate, he considered Sophia’s situation and what he could do about it. He would have to call Beau as a backup, in case the Warden didn’t want to listen. Red returned and Max watched her change from her robe to her nightshirt. 

She propped herself up on her pillows with a book and adjusted her glasses. Max went over to her bunk and sat on the end. He lifted her legs onto his lap and started massaging her feet gently. They sat in silence for several minutes. 

“Did Sophia ask you for help?” he asked eventually.

Red did not look away from her book when she answered, “I said _no_ , and my answer won’t change for you.”

“I wouldn’t expect it to, and I wouldn’t ask.” He switched her feet and continued with his massage. “I’m just trying to figure out how to help her.”

“Why?”

Max looked at her and tilted his head. “Solidarity?”

“Solidarity with what? She’s not one of us.”

“Ma’am,” Max said. “She’s one of me.”

Red dropped her book to her lap and looked at him. “What?”

“Ma’am. Really?”

She raised an eyebrow, and then rubbed her face. “Right, I forgot. What are you thinking?”

“If they won’t see reason and just change their decision, I will sic my legal team and every LGBT group in the nation on them, in addition to every sympathetic media outlet.”

“At least you’re being reasonable,” she said. Red stretched and got more comfortable. “Get my legs, honey?”

Max moved on to kneading the muscles in her calves. She groaned and shifted again. 

“Still thinking about asking for cigarettes.”

“Yours won’t be the first body they find in my freezer.”


	23. He’s a SHU-in

Nicky walked into the room that Anita and Miss Rosa shared. She held a bag of commissary that she, Lorna, Mercy, and Tricia had put together as an offering.

“What’s this?” Anita asked as she looked in the bag.

“I’m hoping you’ll tell me about Red. Like, from when Red first got here. Or anything fun.”

Miss Rosa and Anita shared a look. On one hand, Red could make them miserable if they pissed her off. On the other, it was a good haul of commissary, including soaps, snacks, and make-up.

Anita invited Nicky to sit and then said, “She got here the same day I did. She was definitely scared, but who isn’t?”

Nicky listened for two hours as the women told her stories. They fell into a casual stroll down memory lane, and they gave up a lot of info.

“Oh man, she looked rough after the black girls beat her,” Anita said. Miss Rosa nodded, while Nicky looked surprised. “She didn’t take anyone’s shit after that. That changed her. Would change me, too. She thought Vee was her friend. That’s why Red doesn’t have friends anymore.”

“Max is her friend.”

Miss Rosa chuckled. “Max may think he’s her friend, but Red doesn’t have friends. Max is useful to her, for now. The moment he falls out of favor with the Warden, or the wind shifts in any way- Red’s friendship will dry up. That's how it works.”

Nicky sat back and considered that. She didn’t want to think of what would happen if Red and Max fell out.

****

Max jerked awake when Red shook his shoulder. “Honey,” Red said. “You fell asleep.”

He looked around and saw that he was on Red’s bunk, leaned against the wall. He had fallen asleep while rubbing her feet. She smiled at him and kissed his forehead. Max rubbed his face and said, “Sorry, ma’am.”

“Don’t worry, love. It’s still early. I want to make a snack. Do you want some?” Max had no illusions; he knew that she just wanted to make food for him. He also knew he did not have an option to decline.

“Yes, please.”

Red got up and pulled some food out of her locker to prepare something in the small space by her books. “You were very cute. Your head flopped over and you started snoring.”

“Ugh,” Max said. She handed him a bowl of commissary casserole with crackers for cutlery and she sat on her chair. “I don’t know why I’m so tired. I spend all day doing nothing.”

“Your brain is tired from trying to keep itself occupied,” Red said.

As Max tried to respond, Nicky popped into their cube.

“So, Red,” the girl said with a sly grin. “I heard someone beat your ass.”

Max stood up so fast his bowl clattered across the ground, leaving a trail of food to the wall under his bunk. “What?” he demanded. He looked between Nicky, who looked surprised, and Red, who looked confused.

Red stood beside the angry man. “Max, calm down. I’m fine. Nicky, explain this.”

Nicky took half a step back. “I bribed some older ladies to tell me about you.”

Red walked forward and put her hand on Max’s arm. “Honey, calm down. She’s talking about when I first got here. Some women jumped me.”

“Who? Are they still here?”

Nicky took another half step back. “I’ll go now.” She turned and left the dorm as if her life depended on it, which it probably did if the look on Max’s face was anything to go by. However, it was not enough to stop her from telling the other girls in the family.

Red sighed and looked down at the mess. Max still seemed furious. His breath came in short gasps and he stared at Red. “Are they still here?” he asked again.

“No. They left a long time ago. I’m fine, Max.” She rubbed his arm and then retrieved a rag to clean the mess on the floor. Max took the rag from her and crawled under his bunk to wipe the mess and then reemerged. He went to rinse out the rag in the bathroom, though he had to explain himself to the CO in the bubble.

When he returned, Red had another bowl of the casserole for him and motioned for him to sit beside her on the bunk.

“I can tell you will hold on to this until I tell you the entire story, so here it is.”

Max listened in fascination as Red told him about her first year in prison. He finished his food and set the bowl in her locker. She put her hand on his thigh and squeezed.

“You looked like you might rip somebody’s face off,” Red said with a slight smirk.

“She said someone hurt you,” Max said to defend himself.

Red observed Max for a few moments. She could not help but compare him to her ex-husband, as she often did. Any time anything happened to Red, Dmitri had rolled over and played dead when she needed him. Once in prison, she learned to take care of herself, to stand up for herself. But with Max, she never had a chance to say a word for herself before he was all over the situation. Red wondered how Max would have responded to Ganya’s threats against her.

Realistically, Ganya would not have lived if Max had encountered him. Yet, Dmitri let it all happen; he let Ganya come into their market and threaten her and their children.

Red stroked Max’s thigh and said, “I love you, Max.”

“I love you,” he replied.

****

Max sat across the desk from Caputo with an easy smirk on his face.

“All I’m saying, sir, is that this is not the cost-saving measure the prison should look into.”

“Cut the bullshit, Rogers. I know you’re going to make this an issue. I’ll bring your concern up with Fig.”

Max nodded and stood. “Thanks, Captain.”

He walked back to his dorm and looked in his locker for a soda. He sat with his drink and a book to keep himself occupied.

****

Red sat in the common room with Mercy, who was preparing to leave the prison. She was giving away her things. Red gave her a paper with an address and patted her hand. “Go there, tell them I trained you in my kitchen. They’ll work you like a Chinese on the railroad, but it’s a job.”

“Thank you, Red. Really, thank you.”

“Don’t fucking come back here, kid. I never want to see you again, in the kindest way possible.” Mercy squeezed Red’s hand and smiled. Yoga and Sister asked her about a few things, and Mercy stood to talk to them. Lorna took her vacated seat.

“Hi, Red. Where’s Max?”

“No idea. I haven’t seen him since this morning.”

An argument broke out between Mercy and Boo. Red rolled her eyes as she listened. She relayed the story of Boo stealing a previous girlfriend’s date to Lorna, who sat fascinated as the story unfolded.

The alarm sounded. Red swore and got on the ground with the other women. She hated the alarm because she always had a hell of a time getting back up. Once she was flat, she thought about Max. If he had caused the alarm in any way, she would knock him into the next week.

They called a false alarm, and Red got to her feet. “Fucking useless idiots,” she muttered. She excused herself to return to her cube.

****

Red walked into her cube and sat on her bunk. The metal creaked as she shifted and tried to get comfortable. Her face twisted and she turned to try to find a single way to lay that didn’t cause unbearable pain.

“What’s up, ma’am?” Max asked from his locker.

“My back is fucked.”

“Oh, ma’am. Lay down.” Max stood and took the cream Chapman had made off Red’s locker. Red rearranged herself and laid on her stomach. Max straddled her and lifted her shirt halfway up her back to rub in the cream. Red groaned and arched her back.

“Fuck, Max,” she said.

He smirked and bent forward to kiss the back of her neck. Her shoulders bunched up from the surprise. Max leaned back and continued on her back until she relaxed and laid half asleep.

Max walked to his bunk, but the alarm went off again. “Jesus fuck,” Red snapped. Max turned and helped her off the bed onto the floor. They laid next to each other and waited.

Max got bored and brushed her hair away from her face. Red turned her head to look at him with a raised eyebrow, and he smiled and shifted to bump his shoulder against hers. Red smiled at him, glad he was near. They stayed close to each other. Max watched her face, enamored of every inch of it. He loved that she usually had a stern expression, but that often melted away when she looked at him to reveal a soft smile and warm eyes.

After an eternity, a CO entered and gave them the all-clear. Shortly after, two more COs entered and demanded everyone leave their cubes. Max and Red stepped out and glanced at each other. Other women rushed to make sure they had nothing incriminating. One of Red’s strictest rules was that she would have nothing in her cube that could get her in trouble. Or at least nothing they could recognize as contraband. Red looked around and saw more women than normal in the dorm for the time of day. Nicky and Tricia were next to Red, so she assumed the COs had herded everyone back to the dorms.

CO Bennet and CO Ford walked into Red’s cube. They tore the room apart, worse than Red had seen in a long time. “What’s this, inmate?” Bennet demanded as he stood between Red and Max with something shoved in Max’s face. Red could not see what it was.

“My deodorant.”

Red rolled her eyes and looked past Tricia to Nicky, who also rolled her eyes.

“They don’t sell this at commissary, where did you get this?”

Red could hear Max's irritation from the way his voice slowed down and his tone dropped. “I did get it from commissary. The Warden exchanges it from the men’s prison two towns over. They have a pre-op trans woman there and she gets the stuff I would be using here.”

Bennet grabbed Max’s arm roughly. “We’ll see. You can sit in SHU until that’s sorted.”

Red felt an explosion of anger as she watched the young CO pull Max from the room. Max looked over his shoulder at her with a frown, worried he had upset her.

Ford finished the inspection in the dorm and Red turned to Nicky. She motioned for the girl to follow her, and once they were both in Red’s cube, Nicky started with her defense. “There was no way I could have done anything about that.”

Red waved her off as she began putting her cube back together. “I saw. There was nothing Max could have done, either.”

COs Donaldson and Bell walked in. “Out of this bunk, Nichols,” barked Donaldson. “You too, Red.”

Red gave him a long look before she stepped out. She stood outside of her cube and listened as the two officers continued to search. It was the most in-depth search she had ever seen. When she looked in, Donaldson had cut open Max’s bunk mat. Bell snapped at her to look away. They searched the cube for another thirty minutes as Red stood outside. When they finally let her back in, she stood in anger as she saw the state of her cube. She was not sure she would have it back together by lights out.

“Rogers is clear,” Donaldson said into his radio.

“Strip search is clear,” Maxwell’s voice responded on the radio. “Going to medical now for a body scan.”

Red’s chest filled with worry. What if Max had done something she didn’t know about? What could he have done?

Nicky returned to Red’s cube after the COs left. “As I was saying,” she said, “a screwdriver came up missing from electrical. That’s why there was a shakedown. Max couldn’t’ve taken it, though. He wasn’t near there.”

A million scenarios filled Red’s thoughts. Max was a resourceful man. He could have found a way to get a screwdriver. She wondered why he would want a screwdriver in the first place. He didn't need one to kill; he could do that with his hands. Red paused and looked to Nicky. She examined her girl’s face for a long moment. Nicky stared back at her and grew more self-conscious each moment. Red could think of something Max might do, and the thought terrified her. Red put her cube back together as best she could, though Max’s mattress was beyond repair. They had also torn his pillowcase and ripped open the seams of his jacket. She had never seen such a thorough, destructive search. Red made his bunk and then sat on her own.

Nicky sat on Max’s bunk. “This is wild,” Nicky said. “I can’t believe they took Max.”

Red rubbed her face. “He better not have done this.”

Max did not return that evening.

Red attending Mercy’s going away party. She was happy for the girl, but tired.

The next afternoon, Claudette approached Red by the ovens.

“A word?” the woman said as she walked into the storage cage. Red followed, curious why the reserved woman was acting so weird. Claudette looked at her with her eyebrows drawn together. “Your girl Tricia was trying to plant drugs in Mercy’s cube.”

Red looked away and stared at the wall. She was furious. On top of Max being in SHU, she felt exhaustion deep in her bones.

“Thank you, Claudette.”

The woman gave a sharp nod and left the room. Red went back to the kitchen and started peeling potatoes. The task kept her mind off recent events. She planned to let Tricia know exactly how she felt about her actions. She would not stand by and let one of her girls ruin another’s life so selfishly.

At the end of her workday, Red waited in her office. She tasked Nicky with sending Tricia to her. The young woman arrived with a blank expression. Red pointed to the second chair, where Tricia sat and waited silently.

“You tried to steal Mercy’s date.”

Red expected some form of excuse or denial. But Tricia just started crying.

“I’m going to miss her,” the girl said. “I can’t lose her.”

Red slid closer to Tricia and pulled the sobbing girl onto her lap to hold her. Tricia curled up and cried against Red’s chest.

“Oh, you poor dumb girl,” Red said. “You have so much to learn.”

She held the girl until the tears stopped. “I’m sorry,” Tricia said as she wiped her face.

“You’re certainly going to be.” Red easily maneuvered Tricia to lay across her lap. The girl squeaked and grabbed Red’s leg.

“Red-”

“Hush. You tried to plant drugs on someone. That’s unacceptable.”

****

After Red finished with Tricia, she hugged the girl and held her tightly. “No drugs,” she said. “Not even to hold. Not in my family.”

“I’m sorry, Red.” Tricia buried her face against Red’s shoulder and squeezed her. “I won’t do it again.”

“Good,” Red said. “You’re too important to me to lose.”

That caused a fresh wave of tears from Tricia. She held Red tightly and said, “I need help, Red. I got into this deep and I don’t know what to do. Anderson said-”

“Fuck that petty little man. You’ll be okay, girl. I’m going to take care of you. The next few days will be shit for you, but you’ll get through it. Now we just have to figure out what to do with Anderson.”

They walked back toward their dorm in silence and stopped at Red’s dorm.

Tricia hugged her tightly before she went to her cube. Red walked to her bunk and laid down gingerly. The tension in her shoulders caused her back pain and a growing headache.

Before she could get too settled, Donaldson appeared at the entrance. When they made eye contact, he took a few steps into the cube. The CO grabbed a chair and sat beside her bunk.

“Can I help you?” Donaldson was one of the better COs, as far as COs could be good, but she did not enjoy the proximity of her jailers.

“You can help your boy. Once he was in SHU, he took his food flap hostage.”

“He what?”

“When they tried to give him food, he stuck his arm out the flap. Last I heard they called in CERT for cell extraction.”

Red dropped her head back. “Holy fuck.”

“Yeah. Is there something we can say to him to get him to calm down?”

Red considered for a few moments. There were several things she wanted to say to him, but none of them through a CO.

“Tell him I’m disappointed.”

Donaldson winced. “Ouch. That’ll get him.”

He nodded and left the cube. Red sighed and tried to think of anything but her family.

****

Donaldson walked up to the group outside of the solitary cell where Max still had his arm through the door. CERT officers surrounded the door in all their gear, with helmets and shields. They wanted to walk through a solution before they attempted an extraction. With any extraction, there was a risk of injury for the officers and the inmate. With Max, they felt there was an increased risk because of his history of aggression.

As Donaldson pushed his way through the six men and knelt next to Campanelli, who had been talking to Max, he said a silent prayer that they had not extracted him. The paperwork would have been a mess. At the door, Donaldson could see Max’s arm and shoulder. He was braced against the inside of the door and his thick arm pressed tightly against the outside of the flood flap.

“Max, I talked to Red.”

The kid’s head wasn’t visible but Donaldson saw his shoulder tense.

“She said she’s disappointed.” Donaldson shifted himself close to the door. “Listen, Max. I know you’re pissed. You haven’t been able to burn off any of your energy and then you were searched and scanned and dragged to SHU. That’s a bitch, okay? I get it. But this isn’t going to go well for you. I’ll make you a deal, kid. You put your arm back in your cell and take your dinner, and you can work out all you want for the rest of the night.”

Max paused for a moment and considered. “You’re not fucking with me?”

“No. Scouts honor, you can work out as much as you want. You just have to put your arm back in your cell and eat your dinner.”

“Okay.”

Max’s arm slowly retracted. Donaldson motioned for the plate of food, and then stuck it through the door. It was better food than inmates in SHU usually got.

“Here, kid. Eat everything there.”

“Thanks. Hey, Donaldson? Can you tell Red I did what you said?”

The CO smiled just out of sight of the young inmate.

“Sure, kid. I’ll let her know. Start behaving.”

He closed and locked the flap before he turned to the CERT leader, who took off his helmet. “Kid’s fucking wild.” The group started filing down the hallway.

Donaldson nodded. “I found him after he tried to kill himself. You think that was bad? Try going at him when he has a knife and no will to live.”

“Shit,” Camponelli said. “No thanks. He seems like a good kid, but damn. He’s too smart and too strong for his own good. Who is Red?”

“Red runs the kitchen,” replied Donaldson. “She’s a maternal figure to a lot of the girls. Though, we suspect it’s not quite maternal love she has for Max if you know what I mean.”

Camponelli did know.

****

Red twisted to stretch her back and saw Donaldson at the door to her office. She hadn’t seen him since the day before. “Hey, Red. It was very important to Max that I let you know that he did as I asked when I got there.”

Red tried not to smile, but she could not help the satisfied smirk that pulled at her lips. “Yeah?”

“He did. I said he could work out if he gave back his door and ate his dinner, and he did. They didn’t have to extract him. He’ll be back tonight after dinner.”

“Thanks, Donaldson,” Red said. He nodded and left. Red stood to go to the visitation room, where Mercy was leaving.

After Boo and Tricia hugged Mercy, Red hugged the girl tightly. She pulled back and cupped Mercy’s face. “You do not come back here, girl. You go out there and be happy.”

“I will. Thank you, Red.”

Mercy left with one last wave to the group.

Departures were always painful for Red. She did not usually attend, instead opting to say goodbye the night before. But with Max in SHU and Tricia almost getting herself or Mercy sent down the hill, Red needed to see her girl one more time.

The day continued on. Red heard the news that someone found the screwdriver under a sink. She rolled her eyes and muttered profanities as she thought about Max going to SHU for that.

During dinner, Red sat with Nicky and listened to her girl-talk to Lorna about cupcakes. Boo sat down next to Red and said, “Hey, if I had some interesting news for you, what would that be worth?”

Red set her mug on the table and rubbed the back of her neck. “Pertaining to what?”

“Max and a screwdriver.”

Red froze, and then looked at Boo. She looked the woman over for a moment. “Three bottles of hot sauce and I’ll put whatever you want on the menu next Friday.”

Boo leaned closer. “It was Chapman that took the screwdriver. She got Max sent to SHU.”

Red’s vision went blurry for a second as her temper roared to life. She immediately looked for Chapman in the cafeteria and found her eating alone. She was so angry she almost didn’t hear Boo when the woman said, “And I want your corn biscuits and gravy on the menu. Thanks, Red.”

Red continued to stare at Chapman, unable to believe the idiot blonde had taken her boy from her even for a day.

After she finished her work in the kitchen, Red went to B-Dorm. Taystee and Cindy both backed up in their cubes and looked at her like she was an unfamiliar creature they had never seen before.

Red turned into Claudette’s cube. The older woman was on her bunk with a book while Chapman was by her locker. Red walked directly up to Chapman and grabbed her neck to slam the woman into the wall.

“You listen to me, you miserable shit. If you fuck up again, if you hurt someone in my family again, I will fucking destroy you. Shape up or you won't last long here. I’ve fucking had it with your ignorance.”

“What did I do?”

“You got my boy sent to SHU.”

“What?”

“Don’t play stupid. Of course they would suspect Max if a weapon goes missing. Let me tell you, girl, I don't need a screwdriver to hurt you.”

Red squeezed her throat once before she turned and left the cube. Chapman coughed and gasped.

Back in her own cube, Red sat to write a letter. After a paragraph, Max walked into the cube.

It took her no time to cross the cube and pull him into a hug. He curled in her arms and rested his cheek on her chest. “Oh, honey,” Red said into his hair. She kissed the back of his neck and squeezed him. “You can never leave me again, my love.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“Hush. Are you okay?” Red pushed him back and looked him over. She lifted and examined each of his arms, then turned him around and lifted his shirt to look at his back. When she found no injuries, she pulled him back into her arms. “Sit down, I’ll make you some tea. Sit.”

Max sat on his bunk and pulled his legs close. Red pulled out her stinger and poured a bottle of water inside to boil. When the water bubbled, she filled a cup and added a teabag. Red turned to hand the mug to Max.

Both sat in silence for a while. “Are you mad?” he asked her.

“I’m- I am frustrated. I am angry that this happened. I’m not upset you went to SHU because I saw you could not avoid that. I am upset at how you behaved once there.”

Max looked at his mug. Red reached over and took the teabag out to throw away.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Red rubbed his hair. “Listen, honey. I get that you’re stressed and angry. And, you have a lot of pent up energy that you aren’t able to direct right now. Young men have more energy than anybody could ever need. I’ll let this one slide, but I won’t be so gracious next time.”

Max leaned his weight on her and rested his head on her shoulder. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too, silly boy.” Red held him to her chest and smiled. “I never want to be apart from you again.”

They sat together for a while, until Red shifted and pushed Max up. “Hmm?” he said. He had begun to doze off.

“I want to talk to you, honey,” Red said. “About us.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I enjoy our time together, Max. But I want us to be very clear. I’ve never had a relationship like this before. I’ve always followed a man’s lead, despite how stupid that man was. I want to make sure that you understand how this will work.”

”What do you mean?”

Red stroked his hair and smiled at him. “I want to make sure you're happy.”

“I’m very happy with you.”

“Good. You would tell me if you weren’t, right?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“Good, I would never lie to you, either.” Red kissed his forehead. “I just want to know that you’re okay with the way things are.”

“I am.”

“Okay, sweetie. You’re happy doing as I say? Following my lead?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“And you're okay with me punishing you if you misbehave?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Red looked him over. ”Why?”

“What?”

“Why would you want to be with a woman that treats you the way I do?”

“You mean someone who loves me?”

“I mean someone who will light your ass on fire if you fuck up.”

Max considered her question for a while. “I don’t know. I think our relationship just sort of developed that way. I’m very happy with it. I feel safe and loved with you.”

Red rested her hand on his cheek. “I’m glad. I enjoy our dynamic, honey.”

He grinned and turned to kiss her hand. “Do you feel safe with me?”

She blinked twice as she considered his words. She thought of Pavel, and Dmitri, and the few other men she had been with. “I feel safer with you than I have ever felt with anybody else.”

Max smiled and stroked her cheek with the back of a finger.

Red took his hand to hold tightly. “I want you to start thinking about the fact that you might be taken from me if you act up again. And we don’t want that.” She gripped the back of his neck. “I will be very disappointed if that happens. It would leave me feeling very unsafe.”

“It won’t. I love you too much.”

“So you’ll make sure you behave in a way that keeps you close to me?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Chapman took the screwdriver. She’s the reason you went to SHU.”

Max’s spine stiffened and he looked at her with intense eyes. “What?”

Red nodded and went back to stroking his hair. “Yeah. She fucked us over. I’m trying to think of how to repay her.”

Max took a few deep breaths and met Red’s eyes. “What are you thinking?”

He enjoyed the look that spread over Red’s face. The way her eyes lit up made him glad he was not Chapman.

“I have a few ideas.”

****

Max sat in the cafeteria with Lorna and Nicky for breakfast. Caputo walked in and made a beeline for Max. When he reached the younger man, Caputo grabbed Max by the arm and pulled him halfway out of his seat.

“What the fuck, inmate?”

“Pardon?”

“I’ve spent the last two hours on the phone with the ACLU, GLAAD, the NAACP, HRC, and PFLAG. I had to google what those were, but they seem to want me personally drawn and quartered in Times Square.”

Max shrugged. “Man, guess it’s a bitch to be the guy mistreating trans people when one of those trans people has 30 million followers.”

Caputo’s face darkened. “Tell them to stop calling me.”

“I don’t control the media. I employ a social media director. Do you want me to tell him to spread the word that this prison has decided to be compassionate toward trans people?”

“Fine! Whatever!”

Caputo pulled Max from his chair and dragged him to the phones. He shoved Max at the phone and then waited.

Max picked up the receiver and dialed. It took Beau quite a while to answer. “What’s up, Beau? Yo, got a favor. Can you repost my video from October twenty-ten?”

Caputo’s jaw dropped. “Rogers-”

Max waved him off and continued, “Yeah, that one. Anyway, we’ve got the evictions coming up soon, so make sure the crew is ready. I’m really jealous that you get to be there. Alright, see you, man.”

He hung up the phone. “What the fuck, inmate?” Caputo demanded. “You were supposed to tell him to call off your army of social justice warriors.”

“I did. That’s all you need to know. Can you get off my dick now?”

Max knew he had made a mistake as soon as the words left his mouth. Caputo’s eyes bulged and he grabbed Max’s arm again.

“You’re done, inmate. You’re going down the hill.”

Caputo motioned for Officer O’Neill to come over and handcuff Max. The two men escorted him to the admin wing.

****

Red threw a pan when she heard that Max had gone down the hill.

”Fucking idiot,” she barked.

She continued cleaning with much more force than necessary.

Nicky and the rest of her girls avoided her for the rest of the day, as did her staff. She returned to her cube at the end of her night and prepared for a shower. The empty bunk raised her ire.

Once she was in her bunk for the night, Red put her arm over her face and let tears fall.


	24. Suckers and Chickens

Carol Denning sat on her bunk with her girls around her discussing their latest plan to destroy D-Block and that bitch Barb.

By chance, Carol glanced out of the cell and saw an unfamiliar sight. A man in a blue inmate uniform walked between two guards toward a cell. It had been a long time since Carol had seen a man that wasn’t a CO or other prison official. The girls around her noticed her attention had shifted, and they looked out of the cell as well.

Badison cocked her head. “You think it’s one of those trannies?”

Carol had been in prison for a long time and had met her share of trans people, but none of them had looked like the guy that just walked in. In recent years, most of them had cut off their dicks and then ended up in prison for social crimes such as drugs or prostitution.

The new guy looked young, like he was still growing into his body. He also looked built.

A third CO ran up behind the trio as they walked toward a cell. “Holy shit! Max Rogers?” the CO asked.

The group of three turned to face the CO that approached. “What?” the new inmate asked. His voice was deep, and he had a few days’ growth of beard. Carol could just make out a few scars on his face.

“Oh my god, it is you!” the CO said. “No one is going to believe this. Can you sign a paper for me? Like an autograph?”

The man tilted his head. “I mean, yeah, okay.”

The CO shoved a paper and pen at the man, Max. Carol could tell that he was a teen; his long gangly limbs were a dead giveaway. He signed the paper and handed it back to the CO, who hightailed it out of the block.

Max looked bemused and he tilted his head. Carol wondered what his story was, and why he looked so torn up. When he turned, more scars became visible, including a jagged one down his jaw.

Regardless, he intrigued her. She looked to Badison. She pulled a finished sucker out of her mouth as she considered what to say. “I want to talk to him. Bring him by later.”

The annoying girl agreed. Carol opened another sucker and tossed the wrapper at another lackey.

****

After lunch, Carol sat playing cards at her table with her people. Max approached and stopped across the table from her. She kept her eyes on her cards and pretended she hadn’t noticed him.

“What do you want?” Max asked. He was an aggressive kid, clearly.

“Pretty ballsy from the new meat.”

“I’m not interested in a song and dance. What do you want?”

“You come from down the hill?”

“Yeah.”

“How long you got?”

“25 to life.”

“Murder?”

“Nah, I was not guilty on that charge. They got me on RICO for supposed organized crime.”

Carol did look at him then. He didn’t look Italian or Russian, and his tattoos weren’t from any gang she recognized. His accent was a thick Southern drawl. They didn’t get too many Southern inmates, since most of them went to Virginia. She wasn’t familiar with any organized crime from his neck of the woods.

“Organized cow tipping?”

“Something like that,” he said. “Are you wasting my time for shits and giggles or did you need something?”

“I like to get to know the new people on my block. Especially when those new people are young men who look like they took a wrong turn at Rikers.”

“I could be elsewhere right now, and less annoyed. Do you want to talk or do you want to eat a shit sandwich?”

Badison and the other girls around Carol stood up. Max gave them a bored look. Badison shoved his shoulder. “You don’t talk to Carol like that.”

“Touch me again and I’ll shove your shoulder up your ass.”

Carol snorted. “Sit down. Talk a while.”

Max sat down and pulled beef jerky out of his pocket. “You going to get interesting soon?” he asked.

“I might. You got a dick?”

“Nope,” Max said.

“What’s your thing? Drugs? Violence?”

Max snorted. “Something like that. My case is being reviewed for judicial misconduct, so I’m not too keen to talk about it.”

“Smart. I might be able to use a smart guy like you.”

“I’m sure you could,” said Max. He pulled a sucker out of her pocket and unwrapped it. “Question is, how helpful do I feel?”

****

Red barely refrained from putting her head on her desk. It had been three weeks since she had seen Max. Thanksgiving had passed, and she did not put her usual effort into the meal due to her anger. Any of the women that complained quickly regretted it.

Nicky did her best to keep Red’s mood up, but she had never seen the woman so angry before. Red hardly spoke to anyone, and she spent her days either in the kitchen or in her cube. It made Nicky doubt DeMarco’s opinion that Red wasn’t friends with Max. The woman clearly had feelings for the guy. Even if those feelings were currently anger feelings.

After Gina let Red know that the kitchen was wrapped up for the night, the chef prepared to go back to her cube. She straightened up her desk and put away her papers. When the gate opened, Red turned to yell at whoever dared to bother her. She blinked when she saw Max. He walked forward and hugged her without a word. Red held him for several moments, until she pushed him back and looked at his face. She wanted to yell at him, but he had tears rolling down his cheeks as he tried again to hug her.

Red held firm and kept him back. “How could you?” she asked. His head dropped and she forced his chin back up to meet her eyes. “Right after you promised to try. You left me!”

“I’m sorry,” he said. Max reached out to touch her face, but she slapped his hand away. He flinched and took a step back. “I’m sorry.” Max wiped his eyes. “I’ll go.”

He turned to leave the office, only stopped by Red catching his arm. “Where are you going?”

Max avoided eye contact. “You’re going to kick me out of the family.”

“Like hell I am,” Red said. She pulled Max closer to her and made him look at her. “You mean too much to me, Max. I can't just write you off. I promised I wouldn’t do that again, remember?” She brushed a hand across his cheek and pulled him closer. “What did I say would happen if you did this again?”

Max’s face drew back into a grimace. His countenance changed as he dropped his face and he shifted uncomfortably. “Ma’am.”

“What did I say?”

“You said you would paddle me.”

“That’s not all I said.”

“Bare.”

“That’s right. But I will let you choose if you want to go over my lap or over the desk.”

He grimaced. “Ma’am-”

“Choose, Max.”

“Your lap.”

Red nodded and sat on her chair. She reached down to pull open her bottom drawer to retrieve a stirring paddle. Max shuffled when he saw it. His initial instinct was to run, but he paused and took a deep breath to steady himself.

Years prior, Red had gotten a girl from the woodshop to make some adjustments to the paddle. She shortened the handle and sanded down each side to make it lighter, thus easier to swing. The COs didn’t think twice about a spare kitchen item in her office, and had never questioned her during shakedowns. Donaldson, who had never explicitly condoned her after-hours office activities but also had managed to miss them on nightly rounds each time, had once raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing.

“Come here, honey.” She tugged Max closer by his waistband. “Drop these.”

Max pushed his pants down to his knees as his face flushed scarlet. Red helped him over her lap and got him situated. When he was settled, Red pulled down his boxers to his knees. The skin grew goosebumps when exposed to the cold air. She looked over his various scars, and made a note to ask him about them sometime.

“I love you, Max,” she said in her softest voice. “We’ll get this over with and then spend time together, yeah?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Red put a hand on his lower back to steady him and remind him she loved him. She looked at him fondly, overwhelmed to have him back in her arms.

The first smack made Max jump and gasp. He wrapped his arms around her left leg and pressed his face to her calf. The second smack focused on the sensitive spot between his cheek and left leg. Red heard a little squeak from him and rubbed his back.

“I’m sorry,” Max whimpered.

“I know, sweetie. This is to remind you that you need to be obedient and do as I say. And, you need to think before you act out.”

Red smacked him again. The paddle thudded against his backside, and left a very light pink mark.

Two more smacks left his legs shaking. Red paused for a few moments to rub his thigh. “You’re doing good, honey. I’m proud of how good you’re being.”

She decided he was warmed up enough to begin. She delivered a steady stream of strokes, shifting focus between different targets. Red paused for a moment when Max’s right hand twisted behind his back and carefully held her left hand. She gave a soft squeeze and then continued with the punishment as she held his hand. Each smack garnered a small jerk from him, but he remained in place and quiet. The skin she smacked turned from light pink, to dark pink, to uniformly bright scarlet.

Red wrapped up the punishment and returned the paddle to her drawer. She let him remain in place as she rubbed his back and thigh for a few moments.

As he collected himself, Red moved her right hand to rub his tender scarlet skin. He whimpered, but pressed back to her hand, desperate to feel her touch. “Are you going to be good, Max?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And you’re going to do what I say?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Red raked her nails across the warm skin of his backside. He sucked in a breath through his teeth. “And you’ll be obedient and think before you act?”

“Yes, ma’am, I promise.”

“Okay. Good boy. Sit up and pull up your pants.”

Max did as she said and then sat on her lap. She held him and kissed his cheek. There were tear tracks down his face, and she grabbed a tissue to gently wipe them away.

He wrapped his arms around her neck and whispered, “I love you.”

“I love you too, honey.”

Holding him was something special. He pressed against her and inhaled deeply.

Red stroked his hair. “Did you come straight to me?”

“Of course. There is no one I would rather see.”

“Even though you knew I would be upset?”

“Yes. I needed to see your face. You’re important to me.” He pushed his face into her neck and Red felt his stubble scratch against her skin.

Red smiled and kissed his cheek. “Let’s go back to the cube and we can talk.”

****

Red walked Max back to their cube and advised him to change for sleep. She watched him carefully as she changed into her sweatpants and a tee-shirt. He changed into sweatpants and his tank top. Red pulled him onto her bunk and held him. She fisted a hand in his hair to pull his head close and kiss his cheek.

“Tell me what happened, honey.”

Max dropped his head and laid against her chest. “I just fucked up. I’m sorry.”

She kissed his forehead again. “Is that going to happen again?”

“No way.” Max shifted his weight off his backside and pulled Red’s arms around him. “I never want to leave you again.”

Red kissed the back of his head. “You lost weight. I’ll have to feed you more.”

They cuddled until Max fell asleep. Red stroked his hair and kissed his forehead. His face looked so peaceful as he slept. She kissed the scar on his jaw and thought about how much Max had been through.

****

The day after Max returned, Red worked in the kitchen preparing vegetables.

“Red, Chapman has something to say to you,” Lorna said.

Red turned from her chopping and raised an eyebrow as she looked over her glasses. The blonde woman looked terrified.

“Well?” Red demanded.

“They told me to tell you about the chicken I saw.”

The chef turned more fully toward Chapman. “A chicken?”

“Yeah, I don’t get it. What’s the big deal?”

“You’re sure it was a chicken?”

“I know what a chicken looks like.”

“There are no chickens around here,” Gina said. “Legend has it that there was a farm near here. One chicken escaped the night before slaughter. Legend says she’s the smartest chicken ever. Whoever eats her will absorb her powers.”

Red looked between Gina and Chapman. Nicky walked into the kitchen and said, “What’s up?”

“Chapman saw the chicken,” Red answered.

“Come on, Mom. That’s a myth. Remember last time?”

“No! The chicken is real. She saw her.”

“You don’t even like Chapman!”

Red rolled her eyes as Nicky left. “The girl that brings me that bird gets a box of Biore strips.”

Many of the women left the kitchen to look for the chicken. Red smirked. She wanted to cook a real chicken more than she wanted almost anything else in the world.

That evening, Red wandered the yard to find the chicken. She had left Max in the cube, confused as he had ever felt. She had explained the chicken thing to him, but he did not understand a bunch of women running around after a bird. It’s not like they were hard to catch.

After the women in the yard were caught running, they had to speak to Healy. Red fumed when she lost her phone and mail privileges for a month. As soon as she entered her cube, she threw her sweatshirt at the chair and sat down.

“You okay, ma’am?”

“No,” she snapped. “I want that fucking chicken. Chapman is an idiot.”

Max walked over and rubbed her shoulders. “Yes she is, ma’am. Remember when she stole a screwdriver and got me sent to SHU?”

Red’s eyes flashed. “Fucking bitch.”

“Yeah. Her. I hate her. Let’s not get riled up over her, yeah? Just relax and have a nice evening together?”

“I just want to lay down and read.”

“Okay, I’ll leave you alone.” He kissed her cheek and went back to his bunk.

****

Red stared at the ceiling as she contemplated getting out of her bunk. She finally did, and then went over to Max. She sat down and stroked his cheek until he woke up. “Ma’am?”

She looked down at him with a stern expression. “I’m disappointed, Max.” His eyes widened and he tried to shift away from her. Red grabbed a handful of his hair and leaned closer to whisper, “I take care of you, I hold you when you have nightmares, I give you fantastic orgasms- I don't ask for much in return. But I asked for my chicken, and you have done nothing to try to help me. How do you think that makes me feel?”

“Ma’am, I-”

She shook her head and shushed him. “I don’t want to hear it. This is very hurtful, and I’m disappointed. I think you should think about this until tonight when I get back.”

Max remained silent as she got dressed. Red gave him one last dark look before she left, and she enjoyed his expression of fear. Good, let the little boy panic for half a day. He was still sore from his punishment two days before, so she imagined he was not thrilled at the prospect of her being upset with him.

When Red entered the kitchen, Gina was already there. The younger woman bounced on the balls of her feet. “How did you do it, Red?”

“Do what?” she asked as she took a canister of coffee from the dry goods cage. When she turned, Gina opened the walk in and waved Red in. “Fuck,” Red said.

The first thing she saw was a freshly plucked chicken on the meat shelf. “Red?”

“Fuck, no, fuck,” Red said. She pulled off her hair cap and ran a hand over her head. “This must have been Max.”

Gina’s face twisted into a look of concern. “Probably the most likely, yeah.”

“I just threatened him because I thought he wasn’t helping me.”

“Oh. Fuck.”

Red went back to her bunk and didn’t see Max anywhere.

****

Max ate breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria, but left when Red tried to walk out to him. She didn’t attempt approaching him during dinner so he could finish his meal. Red rushed through her nightly tasks in the kitchen to get back to him in the cube.

He was at his locker when she walked in. Red didn’t give him a chance to blink before she pulled him to his feet and kissed him. He made a sound of surprise as she pushed him against the wall.

When she pulled back to catch her breath, she looked at him. “I fucking love you.”

He smiled and tugged her closer by her hips. “Did you get your present?”

“Of course I did, you little shit.” She kissed him again. “How did you do it, honey?”

“I snuck out last night when they were changing shifts. Chickens are real easy to catch.”

Red smiled and kissed his cheek. “I’m going to make us a nice dinner tomorrow, honey. What is a side dish you like?”

“Corn bread.”

She laughed and patted his arm. “Okay. Corn bread. You’ll meet me in my office for dinner.”

He kissed her forehead. “I love you.”

“Why did you avoid me today?”

Max looked down and shrugged. “You were angry this morning. I thought you might still be angry.”

“No, sweetheart,” she said. Red brushed hair off his forehead. “I didn’t mean to be so angry this morning. I should have known you would never leave me to suffer chickenless.”

Max laughed and pulled her in for a hug. Red relaxed against his chest, content. “It will be the best chicken you’ve ever had. I’ve waited for this for many years.” Red smirked and tapped his nose. “You are a keeper. Where were you this morning? I tried to find you.”

“I was at medical.”

“At 5am?”

He looked down again. “Yeah.”

Red dropped her hands to grab his wrists, but she felt something on his left arm. When she looked down, it was a lime green plastic wristband. She tried to move his arm to see what it said, but he shifted away.

“Max, what is that?”

“Nothing, ma’am.”

Red took his arm with more force and pulled his wrist close to her face.

**_Suicide Watch: utensil restriction / no yard / transport shackles / double portions_ **

“What is this, honey?”

“Apparently they were supposed to give it to me after, you know, but they didn’t.”

Red kissed his hand. “Honey.” She pushed him into his chair and went to her locker. “You did not eat very much today. I have some food here for you.”

“I ate,” Max said. “I had ramen and rice.”

Red looked over her shoulder. “How did you eat either of those without utensils?”

“I- uh.” Max looked at his locker. He could feel Red move closer to him.

“You used my fork.”

“I was hungry. I’m sorry.”

Red pinched his cheek. “Do not do that again.” Red paused and pondered. “I guess you can eat the chicken with your fingers. I’ll figure it out.”

Max hugged her again and rested his cheek on her abdomen. She went back to her locker and retrieved several food items. “Eat these. I’ll get more tuna this week.”

“Ma’am, you don’t have to get me food.”

Red sat on his headrail and looked at him. “Max, are we a couple?”

“Well, uh, yes?”

She ran a finger down his jawline. “Couples take care of each other. You’re my love, of course I’m going to make sure you eat.”

“Thanks, ma’am.”

“Say my name, Max?”

He tilted his head and blinked. “Red?”

Red smiled at the way his accent drew out her name almost into two syllables. “I love that.”

Max grinned and put a hand on her knee. Red leaned forward and kissed him again. After a moment, something overwhelmed her and she deepened the kiss and fisted her hand in the hair at the back of his head. She held him in place and let her other hand wander up his leg.

He jerked and pulled back from the kiss. “Ma’am! It’s the middle of the day.”

Red sighed and arranged the food beside him. “I’m so fucking tired of not being able to do anything with you. The things I would do to you, Max.”

He smiled, but her face remained serious. Her eyebrows drew together and her lips thinned as her gaze bounced between his lips and his neck.

“Ma’am?”

She blinked and patted his cheek. “I may need to call in a favor to get some time alone with you. I can’t stand this.”

****

Red carefully plated the chicken for herself and Max. She had chicken, cornbread, potatoes, and vegetables. Once she had everything perfect, Red brought both plates into her office.

Max sat on the second seat, and Red stopped to watch him for a moment. When he turned and grinned at her, Red continued into the office. She put the plates down and pulled two mugs and a bottle out of her desk. She poured them each a cup and then sat.

Max looked over the food with raised eyebrows. “Wow, ma’am. This looks good. Thank you.”

Red’s heart soared as she prepared to share a meal with Max. He looked so happy that Red smiled and leaned over to kiss him.

Max’s muscles turned to putty as he leaned into the kiss.

They broke apart to begin eating, though Max scooted a little closer so their legs touched.

Red took a bite of chicken and almost cried. She had to turn away from Max to hide her face. It had been years since she had real chicken, and she had not anticipated just how powerful the experience would be.

“Holy fuck me,” he whispered. “This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”

“Yeah?” Red asked. She met his eyes and he looked close to tears as well.

”Ma’am. If anyone insults your cooking again, I will murder them. I have seriously never had anything like this before.”

Red’s stomach flipped. Her cooking was her greatest pride, and to see the naked enjoyment on Max’s face sent her over the moon.

“Thank you, honey. I’m glad you like it.”

They didn't speak through the rest of the dinner, preoccupied with the food as they were.

When finished, Red collected their plates and took them to the sink. She returned to her office and walked toward the cube with Max. Halfway there, he pulled her into an empty admin office.

“Max, what-”

He smiled and kissed her, then pushed her waistband down to her ankles. Red felt a flash of alarm, but she set that to the side to see what Max had in mind. Excitement flooded her senses as he held her. Max pressed her back to the wall and kissed her.

When Max dropped to his knees, Red grabbed a handful of his hair. He grinned at her and kissed right under her belly button.

“Someone feels playful,” she said. Red sighed and tightened her hand in his hair. “I’ve been working all day, Max.”

“Exactly. Now it’s your turn to relax. You said you wanted some time alone.”

****

Red held Max’s hand on the way back to their cube. As the evening wrapped up, she felt like it had been her best day since she entered prison. Her legs felt barely able to carry her weight, and she loved the feeling.

Red began the process of removing her makeup while Max changed. She watched him in her mirror as he took off his shirt and pants.

Nicky popped into the cube. Red turned her mirror and faced the girl. “What’s up, Nicky?”

Max pulled on a pair of sweatpants that had been cut into shorts and laid on his bunk with a book. Nicky sat on the headrail of Red’s bunk. She looked down at the ground between them and sighed.

“Lorna broke it off with me. She said that she needs to tighten up for Christopher. It’s bullshit.”

Red patted Nicky’s leg. “Plenty of other women here, kid. Everything will be okay.”

“But- I really like Lorna.”

“I know, Nicky. Sometimes life doesn’t work out the way we want it to. It’s bullshit and it’s painful, but that’s what we get. Go find someone else to play chapel with.”

Nicky leaned forward and hugged Red. “I love you, Mommy.”

“I love you, ridiculous girl.”

Nicky did not break the hug for several moments. She drew every ounce of comfort she could from the embrace.

“Get ready for count,” Red said. She stood and ushered Nicky out of the cube. With her girl gone, Red sat on Max’s bunk. She patted his backside then rubbed his thigh. Max looked at her over his shoulder with a smile.

“Yes?”

“You’re wonderful, honey.”

He sat up to kiss her.

The count light went on and Red sighed. She stood and pulled Max up as well. It was clearly too much to ask to go a day without the stupid counts. Red doubted the COs even came up with the right number when they counted.

As all the dorm residents stood outside their cube, Gina and Norma both looked to Red expectantly. She gave a small nod. They were excited to try the chicken, which Red had promised they could have after her dinner with Max.

Ford walked around and clicked his counter as he passed each inmate. He glanced in each cube and then stopped near the CO bubble when he had counted each person.

“No work detail tomorrow,” Ford said. “All inmates are to be in the chapel at 9am.”

“What for?” Nicky asked.

“I don’t ask questions, and neither should you,” answered Ford. “Go to sleep.”

As the inmates filed back into their cubes, Red followed Nicky into hers.

“Mom?” Nicky asked.

Red wrapped Nicky in a tight hug. “Oh, my daughter. What a wonderful girl.”

“Did I do something?”

“Not in particular. I’m just in a good mood.”

Nicky clung to Red until the older woman directed her into the bunk. Red pulled Nicky’s blanket over her and kissed her forehead. “Sleep well, girl.”

“Goodnight, mommy.”

Red returned to her cube. Max was on his bunk and facing the wall. “Get up, Max,” Red said. He rolled off the bunk and looked at her. Red traced her finger under his left pec and nodded to her bunk. His smile widened and he dove onto her bunk and wrapped himself in her blankets.

After a chuckle, Red climbed onto the bunk as well. Max covered her with a blanket and pulled her close to himself. Red rested her head on his shoulder, happier and more relaxed than she could ever remember feeling.

****

When Red tried to walk into the kitchen with Norma, a CO stopped them. “No work duty today.”

“Who is going to make breakfast?” Red asked.

“Continental breakfast. Back to your dorm, inmates.”

The two women turned back to their dorm. Red found Max still asleep on her bunk, spread-eagled on his stomach. She took off her kitchen clothes and looked down at Max. Red carefully sat next to him and rubbed his ass until he woke up.

Max’s head popped up and he looked around. His tired face amused Red. “Hi, honey,” Red whispered. “I don’t have work today. Want to move over?”

He slid to the wall and Red laid beside him. Max draped his arm across her and sighed. He dozed off and Red watched him sleep, amused how relaxed and adorable he looked.

The COs delayed turning on the lights until 7am. Some women woke earlier out of habit, but most remained asleep. Red stayed awake and held Max until it was time to rise. She gently shook him until he woke.

“What’s happening?”

“Time to wake up,” Red said. “We have to meet in the chapel in an hour.”

“Chapel?”

“They’re having a meeting. Remember from last night?”

“Oh.”

Max moved off the bunk and pulled on clothes. Red dressed in her khaki pants and sweatshirt. They went to the bathroom together where Max brushed his teeth. Red rapped on the only stall door.

“Hurry up,” she barked.

“Fuck off!”

The restroom went silent. Several women covered their mouths to hide their giggles.

Max slowly turned and stared at the door. Red put a hand on his chest to hold him in place.

Red said, “Pardon me?”

“You heard me, bitch. I’m shitting here.”

Most of the women in the bathroom left. Those that remained were incurably curious. Red looked to Max and then lowered her hand.

Max took a step forward and gripped the top of the door with his right hand. He pulled himself up and reached with his left hand to unlatch the lock. He dropped to his feet and shoved the door in.

The occupant of the stall screamed and rushed to pull her pants up and flush. “What the fuck?” the woman yelled. She was new; Max had never seen her before. “What the fuck are you?”

“I believe Red told you to hurry the fuck up.”

Max grabbed the woman by the hair and pulled her out of the stall. He stopped so that the woman faced Red. “Hello,” the chef said. “Next time I tell you to do something, you better do it.”

That done, Max hauled the woman to a shower stall, tossed her in, and turned on the freezing cold water. She shouted and flailed. Max went back to the sink to finish his mouthwash.

Red emerged from the stall and patted his arm. “Ready?”

“I am.”

Together, they walked to the chapel. Just before they entered, COs Maxwell and O'Neil handed them each tiny boxes of cereal, a carton of milk, and a banana. Red looked at the pathetic meal and her blood pressure rose.

Red sat in the front row all the way to the right of the stage, and Max sat next to her. The room filled with more people and their chatter raised the volume of the room until Caputo walked in front of the crowd and yelled for everyone to shut up.

The Captain looked to Donaldson. “Everyone here? Good. Listen up! We have some announcements to make. Anyone that doesn’t like it can speak to their counselor.”

Healy walked in and sat on the stage. More COs walked in as well, apparently having finished making sure all the prisoners were accounted for.

“First up,” Caputo said, “jobs. Due to budget cuts, we will be limiting the employment program. Those who will no longer be working will be put on maintenance pay. Job assignments will be posted on the bulletin board after this meeting. Anyone not on the board will no longer have a job.”

There was an uproar. For many of the women, their job was their only source of funds. Maintenance pay was less than a third of what they made by working.

“In general,” Caputo said, “we’re getting rid of the electrical shop, grounds crew, and half the custodial jobs.”

“So fucking whiteys get to keep their jobs?” Watson demanded. “What the fuck?”

“I’m sorry, should I fire the kitchen staff so you can all starve?” Caputo waited for everyone to settle down. “Additionally, we’re going down to two meals and a snack each day.”

“Yo what?” Cindy shouted. “Is this because Max eats like a small elephant?”

Red put her hand on his knee. He was pretty sensitive about his eating. Max turned his head briefly and smirked at her.

Caputo continued, “Also, visitations will be limited to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”

Red jolted. Most of the women had family that could only visit on weekends. Her own sons had rarely ever visited during the week due to their jobs.

Several COs had to tell inmates to sit. It took almost five minutes for everyone to settle down.

“These changes are happening due to a very severe budget situation this year. We will reevaluate often to determine when things can return to normal. In the meantime, you will notice some changes. Dorms will rotate days for the TV room, common room, and library.”

Caputo went over a laundry list of changes. Red wondered if they wanted a revolt. Because they were acting like they wanted a revolt.

They limited each inmate, except kitchen workers, to three showers a week. Red wondered if they cared that her bunkmate was a teenage man who could sweat through a t-shirt in twenty minutes while standing in a freezer. She did not look forward to the point each week where Max would have to go 72 hours without a shower.

To wrap up, Caputo announced that Healy would be bringing back the Women’s Advisory Council to deal with any complaints. Red thought that was smart; the inmates would harass their representatives instead of the staff.

The inmates were instructed to spend the rest of their workday cleaning their dorms. The women were excused by row and filed out.

Red led Max back to their cube, which was already pristine thanks to Max. He spread out on his bunk and closed his eyes.

“What are you doing?” Red asked.

Max looked at her, confused. “Mid-morning nap.”

Red raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. “Excuse me?”

“I can’t work out. I can’t work. I can’t go outside. I can’t read. So I nap.”

“You just sleep all day?” Red asked.

“Pretty much. If I’m not cleaning or working out, I sleep.”

“Absolutely not.” Red tugged on his arm until he stood. “Do yoga.”

“What?”

“Do yoga. Right now.”

Max sighed and went to the hack of the cube. He started the yoga flow that Jones had taught him. Red gave an approving nod and sat on her bunk.

When Max finished, he looked to her for direction.

“You need a snack.”

Max took that as his cue to grab food out of his locker. He sat on top of the metal box and ate tuna.

Red smiled as she watched him.

Nicky popped into their cube and sat on Max’s bunk. “They posted job lists. Surprise, surprise: Red still has a job. I don’t. Neither does Lorna, Boo, Chapman, Vause, Tricia, or most other people.”

“Fuck,” Red said. She had a hard enough time keeping her family out of trouble when the prison kept them busy half the day. Max not having a job had been a nightmare. She would have to find a way to keep them all occupied and out of SHU.

“Group naps?” Max said.

Red threw a pillow that hit him in the face, and he cackled.


	25. WACked

On the first day the policy changes took effect, Red noticed a palpable difference in the prison population. Most of them had complained about their jobs, but without them, the women didn’t know what to do.

After breakfast, many inmates looked at each other in confusion.

CO Donaldson stepped into the cafeteria and said, ”Privileges for the day! TV room goes to A Dorm and D Dorm. Common room goes to B Dorm and C Dorm. Library will be B Dorm and D Dorm in the morning until 1pm, switching to A Dorm and C Dorm after 1pm. Yard will be A Dorm and C Dorm until 1pm, switching to B Dorm and D Dorm after 1pm. The chapel is open to all dorms for religious observance only.”

Max glanced at Nicky and they shared a grimace. Nicky tilted her head. ”You hiding in your cube all day?”

”Yeah. Want to join?”

”Absolutely.”

They bussed their trays and then went to Max’s cube. Max dropped onto his bunk and Nicky sat on Red’s.

”This is bullshit,” Nicky said.

Boo and Yoga Jones walked in. They pulled up chairs and sat against the wall.

“Well, shit,” Boo said. “What do we do now?”

Yoga sighed. “Administration is trying to get some inmates to keep everyone occupied. They asked me to lead a yoga class every day outside.”

Nicky snorted. “How long until the hit up Max for something dumb?”

“By the end of the day,” Boo said. Max groaned and dropped his head back against the wall. “Oh, yeah. It’ll be something dumb.”

“So, no lunch,” said Nicky. “Wonder what their idea of a snack is.”

Max shifted and rubbed his neck. “Red said that it seemed like it might be fruit.”

“Oh fuck,” Boo said. “So they took our food, and our jobs, so now we can’t buy commissary? Fuck.”

“You’re screwed, Max,” Nicky said. “Red’s going to make you eat quadruple portions.”

“I will revolt,” Max said.

“Ohhhhhh,” Boo said. “Red won’t like that. Max will be in trouble.”

Max threw his pillow at her. “Shut up.”

That led to several minutes of teasing. Max was a good sport and sat through their taunting until Gina showed up at the cube. She handed Max a brown bag and then left.

Max found two sandwiches and a Ziploc bag of crackers and cheese with a note from Red that he better eat it all.

The teasing grew decidedly worse. Max grinned good-naturedly, but he did slip the note into his shirt pocket.

****

That afternoon, each inmate got half an apple and half a banana. Red leaned against the wall and watched with her blood pounding in her ears as the women grumbled over the lack of food.

Lorna announced at dinner that Red had picked her to run for WAC. Nicky grilled her about why Red would have chosen her.

Max looked at his tray for several moments. It was stacked high, and he did not think he could even try.

After he considered it for a while, Max stood and left the cafeteria. Boo shrugged and helped herself to his tray.

Nicky walked into the kitchen, where Red was alone cleaning counters. Red caught sight of her as she stopped by the prep counter. “Don’t just stand there, help.”

Nicky grabbed a rag and aimlessly wiped the surface. “This rag smells like mold, Red.”

The older woman turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “Nicky.”

“Why did you choose Lorna?”

“What?”

“For WAC. Why did you choose Lorna for WAC? I thought I was like, your Spock.”

“My what?” Red chuckled and took Nicky’s hand from across the counter. “Lorna is pretty and unthreatening. You have a big mouth and don’t take orders well.”

“But-”

“Listen, Nicky. Lorna does as she’s told and she’s unthreatening. And she’s not a risk of going to SHU.”

“I haven’t been to SHU in weeks.”

Red snorted. “Oh, okay. That’s better.”

“You still, you know-“ Nicky trailed off and looked down.

Red walked around the counter and pulled her into a hug. “Of course, silly.”

Nicky rested her head on Red’s shoulder. “Thanks.”

****

Max walked to the administrative wing and knocked on Caputo’s door. “Come in!” the man yelled.

When Caputo saw Max, he groaned and dropped his chin for a moment. Max smirked at the reaction. “Yeah. It’s me. I need to talk to the warden about this ridiculous exercise restriction.”

“Rogers, we’ve been over this. Medical determined that you need to gain weight.”

“Sitting on my ass and being a glutton aren’t the only ways to accomplish that. Building actual muscle is more efficient and healthier.” Max rested his arms on the back of the chair in front of Caputo’s desk. “I have an adrenaline addiction. If I don’t get some endorphins happening here soon, I will start fingerpainting with my own shit.”

Caputo slumped in his seat and said, “Jesus Christ, Rogers. I’ll email him, but I’m not making any guarantees. The warden is serious about you gaining that weight. I don’t know why and I don’t give a shit why, but he’s fucking focused on you. Less I know, the better. Get the fuck out of my office.”

Max left. He walked back toward his cube, but Red caught him in the hallway. “You didn’t eat,” she accused.

“Oh lord,” Max said. “I can’t. I really just can’t. I’m sorry.”

Red gave him a dark look. “Oh, really?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

Her angry look morphed into concern. “Are you okay? Do you feel sick?” Red pressed her hand to his forehead and clicked her tongue. “Go lay down, I’ll bring you tea, honey.”

“I’m not sick,” Max said.

“Do as I say, sweetheart.”

Max went to his cube and laid down. He had no idea how to explain that he didn’t feel sick, necessarily. He just felt awful. Like his blood was as thick as pudding and he was tired constantly.

Red returned with tea and sat on his bunk. “We’ll definitely have a tea kettle when we get out. I’m so tired of using a coffee maker, or a fucking extension cord.”

“When we get out?” Max blew on his tea and watched her.

Red looked out the entrance and rubbed her forehead. “Yeah. I only have a few years left, and you’ll win your appeal. That is, if you want to live with me.”

“Of course I do. I can’t think of anything I would want more.”

“Good. Drink your tea. Today was shit. This new meal schedule is fucked.” Red shifted Max’s legs so she could lean against the partition, then pulled his legs across her thighs. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay.”

“Max.”

He explained to her how his body felt, and she listened intently. When he finished, Red rubbed his leg and thought.

“Have you always been so active?”

“Yes ma’am; since I was a toddler.”

Red smirked at him. “Ah, yes. We did see Baby Max in the video. What a fun little boy.”

Max gave her an annoyed look. “Yeah, I was great.”

Nicky walked into their cube and plopped on Red’s bunk. “Bad news. Pennsatucky and Leanne are talking shit again. Vause heard them in the laundry. They hate you almost as much as you hate Chapman, Red. It sounded like they were going to try to do something.”

Red rolled her eyes and sighed. “Dumb fucking children.”

Nicky stayed in their cube for a while and talked. She left eventually to hang out with Vause. Red looked to Max as he stretched.

She rubbed his abdomen. “We’ll get you feeling better, honey. I need you in top shape to keep up with me.”

Max grinned and sat up enough to kiss her cheek. “The ultimate priority.”

Red carefully lowered her hand until it rested on his public bone. Max froze, cautious about any reaction he could have that might give them away. Red only gently rubbed him over his pants.

The close-but-not-quite sensation drove Max up the wall. He grabbed Red’s hand to pull it away and dropped his head back to catch his breath. She enjoyed tormenting him just a little too much.

After he calmed, Max met Red’s eye with an exaggerated frown. She grinned and continued to hold his hand.

“Is there a part of you I can touch that doesn’t turn you on?”

“No.”

****

Max stepped out of his cube when CO Bell barked at him. Other inmates lined the dorm as COs entered cubes to search for contraband.

CO Donaldson walked into the door and said, “Rogers. Go to medical.”

Max walked out of the dorm and went to medical. The doctor weighed him and took his blood pressure.

“Change of plans,” the doctor said. “You need to exercise more.”

Max almost punched the man. “That is what I have been saying.”

“That’s nice. Deal is you exercise as much as you want, but if you don’t gain the weight in 90 days you’re going to solitary.”

“Deal,” Max said. “Can I go now?”

“Please do.”

****

Max sat on the wall of Tricia’s cube and talked to the girl. He wanted to know about her trying to steal Mercy’s date, and how she had gotten the drugs.

Anderson, who had been assigned to Admin, primarily intake, was pushing drugs. Max disliked the man for various reasons. He was glad that he would finally have a reason to get him. There was no way Red would refuse to let him hurt the guy.

The conversation moved on to Max’s life outside of prison. Everything he said fascinated Tricia. As they spoke, things became more personal. They shared things about their past with each other and traded snacks.

Nicky joined them after she got bored of the TV room. The stories become funnier as Nicky contributed.

A few hours after dinner, Red returned to the cube. Max entered after her and asked her how her day had been. “Shit,” she snapped. She ripped off her chef jacket and threw it in her laundry bag.

“Anything I can do for you?”

Red turned and looked at him. He looked genuine and concerned. “I’m working so hard to keep all these women happy, but it’s never good enough. And the fucking fucks in those offices couldn’t give a shit.”

Max stepped forward and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Ma’am? Can I help?”

“I’m going to go shower. I’ll be about twenty minutes. Meet me in my office after?”

Max smiled and kissed her. ”Of course.”

He went to her office as Red went to the showers. He sat in her chair and spun around until he got too dizzy.

Red walked in and pulled him to his feet, then shoved him to his knees.

****

Red pulled her pants up and looked down at Max. He smiled at her and rested his hands on her thighs.

“Feeling better?” Max asked.

“Maybe.”

Red fisted a hand in his hair and tilted his head back. She traced a finger up his neck, over his adam’s apple, and to his chin. His smile widened.

She said, “Of course I feel better, Max. Here, get up.” Red helped pull him to his feet and she hugged him tightly. “Let’s go back to the cube and relax.”

He held her hand as they walked. “Doctor said I can work out again. Do you mind if I use you for weight?”

“You calling me fat?”

“More like not heavy enough.”

“Good boy.”

Once in their cube, Red opened her locker and handed Max a package. “These are body wipes. You can use them on the days you can’t shower.”

“Aw, thanks, ma’am. So glad to know I smell.”

“You don’t smell bad, but it is a strong smell.”

He laughed and put the wipes in his locker. “Thanks, ma’am. I appreciate it.”

Donaldson stopped at the opening to the cube and looked to Red. He tossed an envelope onto her bunk. Red blinked. Healy had suspended her mail privileges over the chicken.

“Clean up your cube, inmate.”

The CO left and Red grabbed the envelope. She found a short note and a picture from Vasily.

_Ma,_

_This is Nikolai Vasilevich Reznikov. He was born December first, 9 pounds and fifteen ounces._

_Vasily_

Red sat on her bunk and looked at the picture. It was a close up of a chubby-cheeked baby boy. His eyes were open just a little, and he had a grin that melted Red’s heart.

“Ma’am?”

“I’m a babushka,” whispered Red. She looked at Max and turned the picture so he could see. ”My baby had a baby.”

“Beautiful, ” Max said. He sat by Red and examined the photo with her. “Definitely a family resemblance.”

Red tried to hold in her tears, but they came anyway. She climbed off the bunk and tracked Nicky down in Boo’s cube. She showed the girl the picture with a wide smile. “My grandson!”

Nicky jumped off the locker and hugged Red. ”He’s so cute! Like a baby seal.”

Red gave her all the details, then went around to show the rest of her family. They all cooed and congratulated her on her new grandson. She returned to her cube lighter than air.

Max smiled and wrapped her in a tight hug. “I’m so happy for you, Red.”

She leaned back and looked at his face. It hit her that she was celebrating becoming a grandmother with her 19-year-old boyfriend. He did not seem to have any such reservations about the situation. He combed a hand through her hair and smiled.

Red wondered if he just hadn’t made the connection. “That makes you a step-grandfather.”

His smile widened and he kissed her forehead. “What gift should we send the baby?”

“Pardon?”

Max’s smile faltered. “Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t want to be insensitive to your culture. Do Russians not give gifts for births?”

“No, that’s not it. I just didn't realize you would want to.”

“Oh, of course. New babies are a big deal. You’re very practical. Maybe diapers and clothes? I think those are really important.”

Red smiled and kissed him. “That would be lovely. I can pay you in-”

“Whoa,” Max said. “You don't pay me for anything. You’re my girl. We take care of each other. Your family is important to you so they’re important to me. We will take care of them.”

The soft expression on his face warmed her heart. “I love you, Max Rogers.”

He bent to whisper in her ear, “I love you, Galina Reznikov.”

Red stepped away to stick the picture to the wall over her desk. She admired the baby for a moment before she turned to Max, who was writing something at his own locker.

Before she could talk to him, he turned and asked, “How big is the place they live in?”

“Pardon?”

“Your son. Vasily. How big is his place?”

“Oh. I think it’s a one-bedroom apartment. Why?”

“Makes a difference on how many boxes of diapers they can fit.”

“How many were you planning to send?”

“Well, babies use a lot of diapers. And they need diaper cream and wipes and a whole bunch of other stuff.”

Red chuckled. “Do you like babies, Max?”

“I do.”

She rubbed his shoulders and grinned. “That’s sweet. Thank you, Max.”

He twisted his neck to look at her. “Don’t thank me, ma’am. This is just what couples do.”

Warmth filled Red’s heart. She ruffled his hair and snuck a glance at his letter.

“Ten thousand dollars?” she shouted.

Max flinched and looked at the letter. “Is that bad?”

“Max, that’s too much money.”

“I want to make sure your grandson is well cared for. I don’t want you to have to worry about him while you're here.”

Red put a hand on his shoulder. “And you can afford that?”

“Oh, of course. Don’t worry about that.”

She sat on his lap and looked into his eyes. “You don’t need to spend money to make me happy.”

He gently cupped her face with both hands. “Listen. You just said he’s my step-grandson. I take family very seriously. Just wait until Beau’s son arrives.”

“Is he expecting?”

“He is. Next month.”

“How wonderful!” Red said.

“I’m going to be godfather. I’m very excited.”

”Why didn't you tell me?”

Max blinked. “Didn't seem like it would interest you.”

“I love children. And I love you. Of course it would interest me.”

Before he could reply, the rest of their family walked into the cube. “Surprise!” Nicky said.

They brought a commissary cake for Red to celebrate. They hung out until final count.

After count, Red slapped Max’s backside as he climbed into bed, and she bent forward to kiss his forehead. “I love you, honey. Goodnight.”

“Good night, ma’am.”

****

Red did her best to make a coconut cake for Lorna for her WAC election, but it did not come out well. Cakes had never been Red’s strongest skill, but she wanted to do something for Lorna.

We brought plates of the cake out to her family. Nicky looked at the plate and raised an eyebrow. ”Should coconut be beige?”

Red felt a stab of pain, and she slapped Nicky’s head. “No cake for you,” she snapped. ”Little girl, big mouth.”

She walked back into the kitchen and cleaned up. Max popped up at the doorway and asked for more cake. Red directed him to the office to wait for her.

She brought him a large piece of cake and sat with him. He ate the cake with his fingers, without any concern over the color.

”Good?” she asked.

He looked at her with a mouth full of cake and nodded. He swallowed and said, “Nicky is just upset about you not picking her for WAC. The cake is great.”

“Thank you, Max.” The pain in her chest lessened as Max finished his third serving of cake. She rubbed his arm and said, “It would be much better from my kitchen. The things here do not work well enough for real cooking.”

“Ma’am, it’s great.”

A CO on the loudspeaker announced that they were going to call the names of the new representatives shortly. Red went back out to the table to stand behind Lorna. Max squeezed between Nicky and Chapman, taking extra care to elbow the uppity blonde at least twice.

“Ruiz. Maria Ruiz. Chang will represent both the Golden Girls and the Others. And… Chapman.”

Red’s spine stiffened. She looked from Max’s face to Chapman, who went pale. Max looked at her to determine how to react. He also turned to Chapman.

Lorna leaned forward. “But you didn’t even run,” she said.

Chapman stood and left the cafeteria.

Red jerked her head toward her office. Lorna, Nicky, and Max followed her.

“This is it,” Red said. “No more chances. Chapman is finished.”

Max said, “Does that mean-”

“If you ask if you can kill her, I will cut your thumb off, you fucking eggplant.”

Max raised his hands in surrender and looked down to avoid eye contact. Red looked to Nicky and Lorna. Nicky shook out her hair. “What’s your plan, Mom?”

“I have to think. None of you are to speak to her until I decide. You especially, Max. Don’t fuck with her or I’ll hurt you.”

Nicky, Max, and Lorna left and went to their dorm. Max laid on his bunk and opened a book.


	26. Blood Something

Red walked into the cube and looked down at Max as he read. “Must be nice to be able to just lay around all day while other people work.”

He lowered his book to look at her with drawn eyebrows. “Pardon?” 

She took off her jacket and rolled her eyes. “Some of us have to work for things. Must be nice to be able to just sit around and have everything handed to you because you had rich parents.”

Max blinked and sat up. She went to her locker to check her makeup. “Why are you saying this?” 

“Because I’m angry that I’m breaking my back to feed all these women, no one appreciates it, and you just get to sit on your ass all day without a care in the world. When I was your age, I worked in a factory. My parents didn’t have billions of dollars for me. I had to scrape coins together to be able to leave that country. Then I came here, where people are lazy and ungrateful and expect everything to be easy and fair. I’ve spent my life serving other people and always get the shit end of the stick.” Red fixed her eyeliner and then turned around, but Max was not in the cube.

Max sat in the salon and talked with Sophia as she trimmed his hair. “I don’t understand people,” Max said. 

“Woman troubles?”

“I guess,” Max answered. “Sometimes I just feel like people are mean to me way more often than necessary. Am I just an asshole?”

“No, kid. Definitely not. You’re a sweetheart.”

“Thanks.”

Sophie tilted his head to even his neckline. “Max, does Red still have a menstrual cycle?”

He blinked and stared at the reflection of a shampoo bottle in the mirror. “I have no idea.”

“She seems like she would be extra terrifying during that time of the month. Whatever it is, kid, it’s not you. You’re sweet, and definitely don’t deserve to be mistreated.” 

He contemplated her words until she dusted off his head and declared him done. Max looked in the mirror and then turned to Sophia, who smiled and patted his arm. “Of course she’ll like it. You’re adorable.”

Max returned to his cube and stopped himself from sitting on the bunk. He didn’t want to appear lazy. Instead, he sat at his locker and started a letter. Beau had been active coordinating their businesses and the eviction of the residents in the homes they had taken ownership of. Max desperately wanted to see the evictions, but he would have to settle for the videos afterward. Beau promised to take ample footage of all the residents they kicked out.

Red was at movie night, and Max knew he had some time before she would return. He wondered why she had gone off on him. He could not think of anything that he had done to deserve what she said. Was she just angry about Chapman being elected and Nicky insulting her cake?

He finished the letter and put it in an envelope as Red walked in. She approached him from behind and wrapped her arms around him, put a package of Swedish Fish in his hand, and kissed his neck. Max had no idea what to make of the situation, and he sat frozen as she hugged him. 

As she pulled away, Red ruffled his hair. “Looks good, honey.”

“Thanks, ma’am,” Max said. He sealed the envelope and slid it into his locker. 

“Do you want to sit with me?”

Max nodded and sat on Red’s bunk with her. She pulled him against her side and stroked his hair. “I missed you at the movie. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine.” 

Red kissed the side of his head. “I was rude, I think. Earlier.” 

He tried to sit up, but her arm tightened around him. “It’s okay.”

“I won’t be rude like that again.”

“Thanks, ma’am.”

“Nicky told me I sounded like a jackass.”

“Wow, Nicky’s really racking up the brownie points today.”

Red chuckled. She pulled him closer until his back was flat across her lap and she looked down at him with a grin. “Indeed. It appears I am as well. What would make it up to you?”

“It’s fine,” Max said. He stroked her face with a finger. “I really like Swedish Fish. Thank you.”

“Okay, honey. I’ll believe you. Do you want to help me plan getting back at Chapman?”

“Yes.”

“I’m thinking of something long term. Something she won’t see coming.”

They discussed ideas for a few hours until lights out. When the fluorescents went out, Red held Max tighter and kissed his forehead.

****

Red listened as Gina explained the latest drama. Pensnsatucky was furious that Chapman got the election. Red did not enjoy having something in common with that hillbilly. 

“I want to talk to the tall one,” Red said. “Vause. Bring her here after breakfast.”

Gina nodded. “You got it.”

After breakfast was served, Vause stepped into the kitchen and sought out Red. “You summoned me?”

“You’re aware I don’t like Chapman?”

“Martians are aware you don’t like her.”

“Good. I don’t want you speaking to her.”

“Pardon me?”

“Are you deaf? Do not speak to her. She’s a ghost now.”

Vause looked like she wanted to argue, but she nodded. “Sure. Anything else?”

“You work in the laundry with Dogget, no?”

“I do.”

“Good. You’ll let me know if she talks shit. I’m sick of her bullshit.”

“Well, that’s something we agree on.”

“You got a problem, Vause?”

“I just think it’s really interesting that Piper made _one_ mistake and you completely wrote her off. She didn’t ask to be put on WAC. What is your malfunction over her?”

“She hit me. She got my bunkie sent to SHU. She is not doing herself any favors here.”

Vause rolled her eyes and walked out of the kitchen. Red glanced at Norma, whose expression clearly stated both her amusement and her exasperation. Red smirked at her. Of anyone in the prison besides Max, Norma knew her the best. She was Red’s oldest friend, and she was very loyal.

“Norma, bring Chapman by my cube this evening, would you?”

****

Piper nervously stopped just outside of the entrance to Red’s cube. She saw Max massaging Red’s shoulders at her locker, though she would have sworn she saw his hand pull out of the collar of her shirt.

“Um, hello,” Piper said. 

Red looked at her for a moment. “Chapman,” the older woman said. “Come here, I’m not going to yell for your convenience.”

Piper took a few steps forward, but avoided getting near Max. 

Red took off her glasses and shifted in her chair to face Piper. “You have a WAC meeting tomorrow. You need to know what to say.”

“Oh. I, um, I thought I had some good ideas.”

“You’ve been here for six minutes; you know nothing of how this prison works. You have never had a good idea in your life. You’ll do as I tell you or you’ll suffer.”

Piper crossed her arms. “You know, I’m not sure I will. What power do you have? You can stop feeding me? I have commissary now. I’m not afraid of you.”

Red straightened and tilted her head. Max’s fingers dug into her shoulders as he took slow, deep breaths. Red patted his left hand with her right, and then gently took hold of his fingers.

“Oh, really?” Red asked. “Well, I suppose you win. Have a good night, Chapman.”

Piper turned and left the dorm. She saw Alex in the library, and she detoured there to talk to her. “I told Red where to shove it,” Piper said. 

Books toppled to the floor as Taystee knocked over a pile snooping on their conversation. She grimaced and ducked behind the nearest shelf. 

Alex took a step back. “You _what_?”

“Yeah. Who is she to push me around? She can’t actually do anything to me.”

A few titters echoed around the room as several women laughed. 

Piper stood firm. “I’m not going to be a doormat.”

“Pipes.” Alex paused and only rolled her eyes.

****

Max almost followed Chapman out of the cube, but Red grabbed his arm. She stood and pushed him into the chair, backward on his lap so they were chest to chest, and wrapped her arms around him to grasp the back of the chair, effectively pinning him.

“Listen to me, Max,” Red said. She leaned closer to him and looked into his eyes. “You are _not_ going to do anything to her. We have to be careful or you’ll go back to SHU. And would I be happy if that happened?”

“No.”

“That’s right. We’re going to send Chapman to SHU. You just keep making that mean face at her. I like that mean face.”

Max smiled and kissed her cheek. “Well, you won’t let me break her neck. Is there anything I _can_ do to show my love?”

Red rested her arms over his shoulders and clasped her hands behind his neck. “You don’t need to prove anything. You _can_ eat my pussy tonight if you really feel like you need to contribute.”

“Fucking finally.”

She smiled at him. “I swear you’re developing an addiction.”

He rolled his eyes. His hands firmly held her hips and he grinned. “It’s only a problem when it becomes a problem.”

****

Red uncovered her mouth and sighed. Max crawled up the bunk and laid on top of her. 

“I love you,” he whispered. She smiled and stroked his hair while her body recovered. 

“You’re beautiful,” she whispered in his ear. “I love you.”

She held him and rubbed her cheek on his forehead. A strong hand squeezed her arm and she shivered. She could tell he had gained weight from the way he made sure not to crush her. A faint coat of sweat covered his skin as she ran her fingers up his bare chest.

Red fisted a hand in his hair and tugged. “You’re a treasure. I’m lucky to have you.”

“Aw,” he said. “Thank you, ma’am. I’m lucky to have you.”

****

At dinner, Max sat with Nicky and Lorna. Chapman was at the next table with Vause, Boo, and Jones. “WAC is bullshit,” she said. “They don’t want to make any changes here. It’s all a show.”

Nicky rolled her eyes. “How’s your cousin?”

“Beau? Good, I think. He got married and he’s going to have a baby soon.”

“Cool, so you’re going to be a- eighth cousin?”

Max laughed. “Uncle.”

“Oh. Do you want kids, Max?”

“Of course I want kids. I’d be a great parent. But I’m not getting out for a while, so I don’t think it matters.”

Nicky leaned closer to him and dropped her voice. “You and Red would make cute babies.”

Max choked on his toast and coughed. He drank half his mug of coffee and looked at her with contempt. “What the fuck are you saying?” he demanded. 

Nicky grinned. Other inmates around them went back to their own business when they knew Max wasn’t going to die over toast.

“Come on,” Nicky said. “I know you're banging her.”

Max scowled. “Don’t talk about Red that way.”

“Sure, sorry. Anyway, you can’t hide this from me. She’s your someone special, and you two would make _adorable_ babies together.”

Nicky lost Max to his thoughts. She could see him considering her words and she smirked. The space between his eyebrows narrowed and his jaw tightened.

Dinner ended and Max went to Red’s office to wait for her. He sat on her desk and rubbed his eyes. What Nicky had said echoed in his mind as he mulled over fatherhood.

Red already had three kids, all older than Max himself. He usually banished that thought as soon as it appeared, but as he considered that Red probably would not be having more children, he let a wave of sadness wash over him. That emotion did get pushed back down where it came from. He loved Red and wouldn’t let not having kids interfere with that. There were other things they could do together.

Red walked into the office and hugged Max. He squeezed her with his knees and held her close. Max peppered kisses across her face. “What a way to end the workday,” she whispered. “You’re so wonderful, honey.”

“How about we go shower? The bathroom will be empty.”

Red smiled and kissed him again. “I don’t think showers are what you think they are.”

Max laughed and pushed her back so he could slide off the desk. Red pressed against him as soon as he had his feet on the ground. Her body pinned him against the side of the desk and she shoved her hands down the back of his pants. Max jumped and laughed in surprise as she squeezed.

“Oh damn,” he said. “Maybe we should skip the showering part.”

“No, you definitely need a shower,” she said, and crinkled her nose for emphasis.

“Oh, I’m sorry," Max said mockingly. “It’s not like you have your hands all over me.”

“You’re irresistible. Even if you’re sweaty.”

****

Red sat in her chair in her cube and read an old letter from Vasily. The creases of the paper were worn and the ink had faded. He had written it a few weeks after she had arrived at Litchfield, and in it he explained how hurt he was, how angry he was, and how sad he was that she had gotten herself arrested. Every once in a while, when she was feeling low, she pulled the letter out and read it. 

She looked up when someone knocked on her wall. It was Taystee. Red gestured for her to sit on Max’s bunk. “You got white girl problems,” Taystee said. “Chapman all in there talkin bout GED classes ’n healthcare ’n shit. Pissed Healy off proper the way she talked shit.”

“Fuck,” Red said. She folded her letter and placed it back in her locker. “What else?”

Taystee went over the entire meeting with Red. 

****

Max rubbed his face as he walked into the cafeteria and sat at an empty table. Gina brought him a tray with two burritos and some fruit on it. He rolled his eyes and tried to convince himself to eat. Red tried to make his food as interesting as possible, but the limitation on his use of cutlery made it hard. There was only so much someone could do to sandwiches and burritos to make them interesting.

Someone sat next to him as he picked up an apple, and their voice made his spine stiffen. “Hello, Max.”

****

Red stepped out of the kitchen and observed Max sitting with an older woman. She wore orange but looked as if she had been down for a while. She had graying hair and glasses. The way she and Max interacted made Red’s stomach ignite with anger. They seemed at ease and friendly. Red did not like it one bit.

Her thoughts shifted as she saw Anderson walk through the kitchen. She followed him in and demanded to know what he needed.

The man grabbed her arm and hauled her toward the sinks. “Listen here, Reznikov. You’re going to do something for me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you're looking for something else to read, I have a canon-compliant story about Norma and Red posted, called Memories. I'm also considering posting the deleted scenes from this story as a separate work.


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